Days In The Akatai Clan
by Klenevieve
Summary: A spin off with Tyler Akatai and what he has to deal with every day of his life. Some good, some bad. You decide. Didn't know which category to put it in so I just used both. Spanking in some chapters WARNING. No picture of Tyler Akatai. Just imagine an older looking Niklaus but with a more mature personality.
1. Dawn Patrol

I was shook awake by Jonah. I got up and saw that Mathew, Joseph, Harold and Elizabeth were already up. Great. I'm going to have to work with that guy? I groaned and dressed myself. I headed out to see if my father was still in the camp. I was lucky and found him sitting outside his den. He was talking with one of the elders. I sat beside him and waited for my father to turn his attention to me.

"Thank you on your wise council Seisal. You always were smarter than most wolves." He bowed his head to the elder and turned to me. "What do you wish Tyler?"

"I was wondering." He nodded for me to continue. "I am going on the Dawn Patrol but I wonder if you might replace Harold on the Dawn Patrol. He and I don't get along well and if he went with us then it would be more of a difficult task to accomplish."

"No I will not replace Harold. Excuse me Seisal. Follow me Tyler." He got up and went inside his den. I waited outside for permission to enter and he called for me. "Tyler get in here!" I went in and sat down at his table and waited for him to continue. "I will not replace him on the patrol. You will need to learn to deal with him because there are more people like him in this world. We are here to teach each other. I wish I could show Harold the right way but he is not my child. His parents raised him to be like that. Some people you cannot change what they believe. I believe that Harold will help you in becoming an Alpha. The best that there has ever been."

"I believe that Harold will be the death of me if I become Alpha. Do you know how many fights he starts because he 'likes the way his enemies' blood tastes.' And I quoted him on that. I heard him talking to the others as I –"

"I demand that you go out there and go on the patrol and don't speak to me about this again today. I do not approve of eavesdropping Tyler. You will do well to learn that." I bowed and left his den, heading over to where my friends were eating. I took a hare from the food pile and sat by Joseph.

"You try and talk your way out of the patrol?"

"No. I tried to talk Harold's way off the patrol. I don't need him starting a battle with the Shitanais. Do you realize that Shane could be on their patrol? He also likes battle."

"Well their both dumb as—"

"Don't say it. As an adult you are supposed to be perfect like the Alpha and his kid."

"Which took years of practice. The only problem I have is sometimes I 'act like a child' and the other is Harold himself. Anyone have any ideas on how to deal with such a person?"

"It is time you went on patrol." Jonah said and I was only half done eating. I tried to finish up but the others, Harold and Elizabeth especially, were getting up to go on the patrol. I took one last bite before standing up. The reason we eat raw meat is because it makes us rough and tough even if we aren't werewolf form.

I caught up to them and they were waiting for me. For some reason, Father was having the ones who went on the patrol with me let me lead, a teaching for when I become Alpha? At least I got to say who is in charge of what but that is hard in itself. I led them out of the camp and to one end of the border. The one we shared with the Clopstans. They were nice except for when challenged. I have yet to come across any Harold's in their clan. We marked our territory by rubbing against the trees and then moved on to mark our borders.

When we reached the Shiatanai border however we were met by Shane and three others. "Why do I smell Akatai scent across our borders?" Shane asked. I sniffed and found that what he said was true. It was different scents however. One was Niklaus, three others that DID belong to the clan. Of course he wouldn't know. Niklaus and his two friends wander around in every part of the woods. The trouble was no one could discern the difference between the two. The others were Atticus, Ranael and Gerald. I would have to get on to them later.

"I smell more human than werewolf. I agree that yesterday some of our werewolves crossed your borders and I promise it will never happen again."

"What do you call this NEW scent?" He pointed at one of the stupid trees. I could not answer the question because I could tell by the way the scent was positioned that Niklaus had been pushed against the tree by one of his play mates. I couldn't possibly tell them that. They had been playing, racing maybe. I stared at him.

"That would not be a scent marking. That was just one of the village children at play."

"And they smell like you?"

"What do you mean?"

"I demand that you give us compensation for this act!"

"Well I demand you get off your high horse and realize that there is villager scents on it too. Within the scent."

"Why you bloody idiot. I will tell Jerome about this!"

"What? You afraid to face us yourselves?" Harold asked.

Then I heard Shane growl. "Attack!"

They all rushed forward. I was going to have to fight. I rushed at Shane and shoved him off of Elizabeth, who had been losing the fight and punched him in the jaw to get him to pay attention to me. He tried to upper cut me but I dodged just in time to kick his abdomen. He groaned in pain and then one of the other Shitanais came at me. He managed to back hand me away from Shane and he tackled me to the ground and began to pummel me with punches to my face and this time Joseph smashed the man away from me and growled at him. I saw that two of the Shitanais had left but Shane was easily taking down Harold. I rushed over to flip him over and banged his head against a tree. He shouted to the other one who was taking Joseph and Mathew. "Retreat! We'll get these backstabbing bastards later!"

"And when you do I'll be waiting for you!" Harold jeered after them. I looked to the others and saw that Elizabeth was bruised on her leg. She would need to see Jacob. I glared at Harold and helped him up.

"Did you really have to start that? Elizabeth is bruised because of your mouth. You almost lost yourself. You realize he could have killed you?"

The others stared at me. "And who are you? Ishaan?" Harold laughed. "If you can't tell we won."

"Yes we did but we wouldn't have to 'win' if you didn't open your big mouth Harold. Come on. Let's keep moving. We have territory to cover."

"Whose scent was that anyway? If you remember I did help you defend it."

"I have no clue what you mean but if you didn't notice, your own DAUGHTER crossed the border as well."

"Yes and I will deal with her as soon as we get home."

"Yeah well good luck. She probably takes after you." I said and we marked the rest of our territory. We headed home and Harold was still trying to make me give up the name of the scent. I didn't. I couldn't. It was Niklaus' secret to keep and throw away as he pleased, though hopefully not in front of Mikael. I couldn't imagine the consequences of that.

When we did get home I saw Harold head over to the teen den and he pulled out Ranael and they stood in the center of the camp. I went inside and found the other two. Gerald and Atticus. I pulled them out and I saw Harold spanking Ranael. I turned away to lead them to Ishaan.

I found him in his den. The children got quite nervous as I called his name and he came out.

"What is it Tyler? What do you want me to do with these children?"

"Are you aware that Ranael, Atticus and Gerald left camp today and crossed our borders into the Shitanai borders?"

"Is this true?"

They looked away and I knew it was time for me to leave. I wasn't comfortable watching children get punished for their misdeeds but they did need to learn. Had my son been in the clan though, I would have done exactly like Harold was doing. So I couldn't confront him about it but I could ask him what he was doing there.

I headed over to Elizabeth, who had started bleeding in her arm, and talked to her. "You should go see Jacob and Florence."

"No I'm fine. Really."

"No I insist."

"No Tyler. I said I was fine."

"Then I'll go get them."

"Take one step in there and I swear I will beat you to a pulp in your sleep." I began to laugh but didn't go over to the den. Instead I followed Florences' voice to the inoperative den. That is where all the pregnant people were headquartered at. I followed him inside and found the women who were either pregnant or nursing. I smiled at all the activities going on. Children always made me happy. I walked over to Florence.

"Hey Florence."

"Hello Tyler."

"What are you doing?"

"This woman is about to give birth and we have another woman coming in. The good thing is we have one woman leaving. She has a child at the age of four. I feel sorry for the women. But the good thing is when the babies stop breast feeding and begin to feed on real food like meat and drink water, which happens about the age of two the women can go out and hunt or a stroll. Even before then if the baby has opened its eyes the woman can go out but not that often. It's a good thing that we only have about twelve women in here."

"Well the more the merrier I believe. The birth of a new wolf means the birth of more warriors to fight for this clan. I think we need more every day."

"It's a good thing that we ever have people dying. Though if we do need extra help the elders are always raring for something to do. Okay now what was on your mind really? I know that you don't come looking for us unless you need a favor or some ones hurt. Which is it?"

"Elizabeth is bleeding. We got in a fight at the Shitanai border because of –"

"You don't blame other warriors Tyler. You should know this. How bad is she bleeding? I'm trying to convince this little to come out but it could wait if she's in danger."

"Well then we got in a fight and she's bleeding, not that bad. Why don't you care for her and I'll try my luck with the kid?"

"Well I have been trying for over an hour so I could use a break. But hurry because we have a new woman coming in."

I turned to the kid. She was only four and her mother had already left on a hunting patrol. I leaned down to her level. "Hey darling. What's your name?"

"Angelica." She said and giggled. I smiled at her.

"My names' Tyler. What you doing here?"

"Waiting for mommy to come back."

"But don't you want to play?"

"… Isn't Tylwer the nawme of Big Daddy?"

Big Daddy? Maybe she meant the Alpha? "Do you mean Ishaan? I'm sure he'd love to see that beautiful face of yours."

"No. Tylwer. The boy who had bonfire night."

"… I'm not the Alpha. I'm his kid."

"How old you?"

"I'm 38 years old." I answered. "So you wanna play a game with me?"

"I love gawmes."

"Well then whoever sees sunlight first wins." She got up and ran as fast as she could. I followed behind her. I saw Elizabeth still being tended to and she glared at me, I just smirked at her, declaring my victory. "You win." I told the girl. She saw the others playing and ran to join them. I watched to see that she had a good welcome into the fold. She did.

I headed out of the camp and found my way to the village. I watched as Niklaus shoved his friend to the ground. He was exhibiting some aggressive traits by now but since it wasn't the full moon I could be certain that he wouldn't kill them.

He looked up from helping his friend up to his feet and looked around. He caught his eye beside me and smiled. As if he thought he could see me. I backed up and waited for his reaction. His mouth moved and his friends headed out to get their horses. He headed to where he thought where I was and he realized I was there. He looked around and then he quickly walked over.

"Father how are you? How did the night go?" he asked and embraced me. I returned the hug and then led him to a clearing outside of the camp but in our borders.

"It was great. I however wanted to ask you a question."

"Sure."

"What were you and your friends doing in the forest?"

"What? What do you mean?"

"I found your scent against a tree, did you get shoved or were you playing?"

"I was playing with my friends. Why?"

"It is dangerous in these woods. There are other wolves besides us. I need you to be careful."

"I'm sorry. I promise not to get in danger. We play in the woods every day."

"Why?"

"…."

"Niklaus… answer me."

"To spite our parents."

"Well that is unacceptable behavior."

"Okay I promise we'll stop." I ruffled hi hair, happy he would make a promise like that."

So I headed back to camp and was met with another patrol, the Noon Patrol. This time my father was leading it. I smiled at him as we passed each other and headed back to my den to get some rest. Since most of the adults were gone out of camp anyway.


	2. New Scent

I was shoved awake by Joseph and got up. I looked at him in question, he led me out of the den, and I found that it was time for the Evening Patrol. Jonah was calling out names and so were Ishaan. I gently shoved him in thanks as my name and his were called.

Apparently, I was going out on patrol with Jonah, Joseph, Eric and Ranael. Three adults and two kids. I went up to follow Jonah. Then Ishaan leaned in to whisper to us, me in particular. "Make sure you pay attention to the side with the Wistals and the village. I have noticed a scent and I do not trust it. Jonah will show you when you come to it." I nodded and we headed out, with me leading, again. Ugh. Why can't I go back to the times when someone else was in charge of the patrol?

We had four borders. To the North we had the Shitanais, to the South we had the Clopstans, to the East we had the Wistals and to the West we had the North Village. They called themselves North anyway.

So I led them out the entrance to the camp and toward the East. I heard the prey in the area moving about and when we got there I could smell something funny. New men? It wasn't a clan and it wasn't Niklaus. It wasn't the North Village. I stood trying to figure out which it was. Nevertheless, I couldn't decide who it could possibly be.

"Have any of you ever come across this scent before?" I asked turning specifically to Jonah. He shook his head. Great. I wasn't allowed to go check out all the wolves and village scents so that was out of the picture… though as a child I probably would have thought it a reasonable solution. The others agreed with him about never coming across this scent. I rubbed myself against our border to freshen it and led them off to the Shitanai border. This time we weren't challenged but I could smell some of the children from their clan on our border. I was beginning to get a picture but I did not want to make any accusations yet. Joseph renewed the scent and we headed off after he made a few dumb complaints about them accusing us when they have children doing it themselves.

I tried to catch a reaction from Ranael but she refused to react to the scent. However, I did see a flicker in her eye. I put it in my memory and decided it might come in handy later. I turned from her to talk to Joseph.

"Be quiet. We don't want any trouble Joe." I led them to the North Village border and let the children do it as I scented out Niklaus who was again playing rough with his friends.

"Such savage creatures." Jonah said, noticing my eye. I looked away. If only he knew what he really was. I saw he noticed us and before the others could, I led them away towards our other border. The Clopstan border. The good thing though is at the first of every month we got to intertwine just so we could have time to where we do not have to be on guard against everyone but our own. I could use such time trying to decide whom those children were spending time with. It would be very hilarious if Harold's daughter were spending time with Shane's son.

Jonah renewed the scent marker and we moved on to hunting because we still had plenty of time to do so. Besides Eric and Ranael still needing teaching. They haven't been declared a full-fledged werewolf yet so they were still be taught. They did well and then we all went separate ways to collect food.

I returned with a couple of deer, hare and a bird. Sadly, I failed at catching a lion but I had stepped on a twig and it ran off before I could catch it. We carried our prey back to the camp and laid it on the food pile. Ishaan came out and called out Jonah and I. We turned around to meet him. I caught Joseph, Eric and Rae going off in their own path. I sighed. It sucked being Prince.

"So did you two find the source?"

"No sir. But Tyler has evidence that it isn't any of the clans or the village."

"We think it might be a new village or new men come to live in the village or their visiting."

"You didn't recognize it? Jonah go see if there is something that might need doing. I need to council with Tyler." He nodded and walked off. I followed my father into his den. "So it wasn't anyone you know?"

"No Sir. It was not. I don't know the scent or I would have said so."

"Now that is a lie. Your kid? His mother? The Mikael?"

"No sir. None of them. His mother and Mikael are part of the Northern Village. Niklaus has a different scent than that. You are right Sir. I wouldn't have said if it was him."

"Well maybe we don't need to worry if it's just another village come to visit. What do you think?"

"What do I think? Why does that matter?"

"Of course your opinion would matter Tyler. You are the Prince, you will be moving to Alpha one day, and you will need to know what to do in these situations. Your opinion might help us with this."

"I have nothing to add. If I could, I would supply the answer. If I come up with anything, I will report to you immediately. However, I must add something to this. If you will let me."

"Yes of course you may. Anything of valuable information is very important."

"We came across Shitanai scent on our borders as we approached and we have reason to believe that they have crossed our borders."

"It is just the Shitanais playing games with us. He believes that since we crossed his borders that he should cross ours. Was there any food scent with it?"

"No."

"Well then I believe we will just keep this in mind and then we, the Shitanais and the Clopstans come together then we will discuss this. Zachary has already had Jeremy tell me that he will not be attending because his clan has sickness and he does not wish to spread it. If he comes upon better circumstances, he will inform us. You are dismissed. I suggest you get ready for the Bonfire Night. And then remember that we have you again for Dawn Patrol."

"Again?"

"Yes Tyler. Again. Do you already forget last night's events?"

"I am sorry Sir for questioning your orders. I will be ready for Bonfire Night and I will be ready for the Dawn Patrol."

"Good. Get out."

I left and found myself something to eat. Today was going to be a long day.

(Sorry I took so long to post these chapters but I have been sick. I am going to try to make better time and update all stories at once. So maybe you can expect a weekly update for all of them?)


	3. Henry

I was lying against a tree when I saw Jacob leading a woman into the inoperative den. She was pregnant so she must be the one Florence was talking about. I smiled. If she was going in there that meant that soon her child was to be born.

I wondered what stories we would hear tonight. Maybe The Great Battle or maybe we would hear The Great Alpha. On the other hand, if we were lucky, we would hear from the Elders. They had great stories but I, being my fathers' kid, believed my Father was the best at telling stories. I got up to go look for my friends.

I found them in bed and woke them up. "Ugh. What is wrong with you Tyler? You realize that we need the sleep? We will have Dawn Patrol again tomorrow."

"As will I but you don't see me constantly in bed."

"Whatever." They got up and we left the den. I led them into the den with the new girl.

"Hey."

"Hey Tyler. Thank you for coming to see me. How do you feel about having the honour of being on the Dawn Patrol two days in a row?"

"You know? Well it feels wonderful. I am going to be tired on the second day from today."

"Well maybe if you do well on todays' tasks Ishaan will excuse you from Dawn Patrol tomorrow."

"I don't get special requests as Prince you know."

"Well I plan on naming the child either Ralphie or Candy."

"Either will be a good name for the child."

"Especially if we get a kid named Candy. I mean we already have enough Ralphs." I elbowed him in the gut and he grunted. "I mean I like both names."

"What do you think we will learn about or hear tonight? I can't wait." She sighed and looked away. "I'm sorry. Are you not attending?"

"No I am not. While you are busy with Bonfire Night I will be busy giving birth."

"Why doesn't Father hold it off then?" I asked.

"Because people have been waiting patiently for this night and besides never in history have we done that. Not even when I was a kid."

"Which was about 20 years ago. You are younger than we are. You're 25."

"Do you two have to be so rude?"

"…Maybe…"

"Well stop it."

"No really. It's fine."

We had a nice conversation and then Ishaan called us all out. It was time to find out who was coming and who was not.

"Anyone who wants to attend, I suggest you step outside and gather around."

Some of the women stood and we did as well. We walked out and gathered around. The Elders Seisal and Casandra were already outside. There was only one more but he was in poor health and he had a fever and a cold. I was worried he wasn't going to make it. After all the Cold Season was already on its way.

Ishaan walked around counting all of us and then he went back to the front, which was in front of a broken tree, it had been that way for years and usually when he called a meeting he would sit on it. I do not know why but he says that his father did before him and his father's father did before him.

"Very well. Thank you. Now if you need to I suggest you take a nap, if not then we only have 30 minutes until we leave. Liana, Jonah I want you two to follow me and help me with the fire building."

They left the camp and I followed my friends. Instead of sleeping, we took a deer and ate from it together. Casandra came and sat by me. I looked at her. I couldn't help myself. I was worried.

"Casandra?"

"Yes Young Sir?"

"How is Henry?" She looked to me sadly.

"He is not doing well but we do have a spark of hope in his health. This morning he was able to get up and retrieve himself a sparrow but he couldn't eat all of it. By now, he is still only half done with it. It has grown dirty and yet he refuses to let it go and get something new."

"So he is hungry?"

"Yes he is. Florence keeps bringing food to us but he refuses to eat saying that his stomach is unsettled. I am afraid that he will not make it during the Cold Season. We need more food. Or none of us will survive."

"Oh come on. Ishaan knows what it takes to survive winter. In fact, I have heard he has already started making a Winter Storage. Though he needs more food to be brought so that we may have equal amounts for now and then."

"I hope so." She looked away and I frowned. It was never a pleasant thing when someone died. Especially when you can do nothing but sit and watch it happen.

"May I see him?"

"Yes. You may. Let me show you." We got up and I followed her to her den and found Henry who was looking very frail. I almost stopped in my tracks when I saw how much exactly he was wasting away. We only had four weeks until Cold Season and I could tell that he wasn't going to be any better by then.

"Henry. Hey." I got down to see him and he smiled. "How you doing?"

"I'm fine. I'm a little hungry so if you don't mind I'm going to eat." He picked up his half-boney bird. I sighed. I went and got him a small bird.

"Here. Eat this."

"No. I still have more food on this one." He said and began to cough. I ran and retrieved Florence. He helped Henry.

"I'm going to need Henry come over to Jacob's den. If he stays in here any longer then he might spread this over to the other two. There I could watch him more easily. I'll stay with him while all of you are at the bonfire." He helped Henry up and took him to his den. Even if Henry kept saying he was fine.

"We better go out or we'll miss Ishaan." I sighed, why was he getting this? He served this clan well. Why does he have to suffer? I followed her out and as soon as we were about to sit down again Ishaan came and called us out.

I ran to walk with him. "Dad?"

"What is it Ty?"

"Henry is in bad health. How can we help him?"

"It is out of our hands Tyler. It is now in The Great Alpha's hands and Henry's hands on if he survives this bout of sickness or not."

"But he is degrading himself to half eaten food. How could he even want to do such a thing?"

"Maybe he thinks it easier than how we eat. Tyler I have known him since I was a kid. He was about 12 when I was five. He has been my friend for so long that it is hard for me to hear his condition. He served his clan well. He even helped us win a few battles. Now he is reduced to such a poor thing. Now the only comfort I can supply to you is that if he does leave us that at least we know that he will be joining the Great Lupus and Sirius, and his parents. Not to mention that he will get to live forever." He said and took my hand.

"Lupus?"

"Yes. Once upon a time, we knew The Great Alpha's name. He had a brother named Sirius. They will take great care of Henry. He has served his clan well Tyler. Maybe if you desire someday, we will talk of him."

"It's not fair Father." I complained. "I hate not being able to do anything about this. I hate feeling helpless."

"As do I but we have been through such worries as this before. In fact your mother died during battle with the Clopstans back when you were not but 2 years old." I gulped. He never talked about my mother. "Let us talk of happier things. Like what might we talk of tonight Tyler? I will tell the first story and it will be one that you desire. Remember five stories and then we tell what we have been up to for the last two-quarter moons. Leave out the events of last night will you?"

"Yes of course Father." I replied, blushing at the reminder of what had happened last night. However, I would not change anything about last night at all. We walked off to the area that Ishaan had chosen for tonight.

"Okay who wants to tell the first story?" Ishaan asked. I was sat next to him as was proper for me. Everyone else got to sit where they pleased. I was only able to move my spot when we were talking together. However, tonight I would stay near my father in comfort of what I have just discovered.

(Please Read &amp; Review. Thank you so much guys for reading my stories.)


	4. Henry Is Dying

"I know you all must have heard of Henry Akatai by now. Yes, I know his condition seems dire but I believe, as should all of you, that God, Lupus and Sirius know what is best for him. Now I have heard from Florence AND Jacob—" Jacob bowed his head "— that they have done everything possible to save him. Thus far… it has not worked. Do not be discouraged though. If he was a strong warrior, then he will be strong against the sickness that has defiled his body. Now I hear many of you whispering about the Cold Season. Do not fear for we have two full moon phases until it actually starts. Yes, I know that the weather seems cold already but it is not yet time for that. The air keeps getting colder each day. That means snow is coming this Cold Season. That is why we need to stalk up on food supplies. We need as much food as possible because when the snow DOES come they will be almost non-existent. We will be starting double of the hunting patrols, for food that is eaten now and food that is saved for Cold Season. I promise we will survive. I will need four warriors to come to me and we will build the food shelter for this year. We should have already built it. We will need a place that will keep the food warm, clean and uninfected. Jacob?"

"Yes Sir?"

"Do you think you and Florence can help us with that?"

"Yes Sir. We would be happy to do so."

"Now what we should be worried about right now is the new scent that our warriors have found in our territory borders. It does not go with either of the opposing clans or the North Village. If either of you come across someone with such a strange scent then you will send for reinforcement and to help you all know when this scent is found either one of Jonah, Tyler, Eric, Ranael or Joseph will go out with every patrol until this strange scent goes away. Until then the children are not allowed out of the camp unless supervised by an adult wolf." I looked to Ranael, who seemed displeased about this, however any of the children would be displeased by such news. As would I. "We have come across news from Zachary will after all be attending the Gathering, which will take place two weeks from now. I know we are all happy to hear that his clan, the Paritians, will be attending. Now that the business is done with, which story do we wish to hear first?"

"The Beginning Of The Wolf Clans!" called a little one. I smiled and Father began his story.

"All wolf packs are related from one lone wolf Alpha, Lupus. He found a woman and they fell in love. It was true love at first sight. When they had kids, they had many. Seven. One for every clan beginning. The children got along fine but the Great Alpha wanted to spread his kind around the world and so he told his kids that they must divide and be married to others. The children, not wanting to disobey but not wanting to split up either decided that they would create a pact between each other. They would go get married as told but when they had children they would have their children marry unto each other. Now the children had different abilities from one another. One clan could have speed while one clan mastered in strength. The children knew this so they decided to tell their children that when questioned why they must marry someone they might not love. It went on like that and that is why we have the sacred marriage. One Alpha decided he wanted to rule all the land and make the humans slaves unto them instead of having to either fight or flee from them. The other wolves in his clan had split into fighting amongst themselves over whether to follow what is right and what the Alpha says. For the Alphas' word is law. The part that fought against the Alpha split and decided that they would stand with the other packs against theirs. That is where the first clan split up. Clans have been splitting up and splitting up ever since and that is where we come in along with the other clans. The first alphas decided to bring in ten people at first, then married and had kids, then their kids had kids and then married with the other clan but the others of course had to have children. The Alpha had sex with the females he collected and they would each perceive a child and they would marry outside the clan. Then they started in breeding. Marrying someone in the same clan as them. The Alphas had kids and they married other Alphas kids. That is why we have many wolves in one. The beginning of the clans. Who wants to tell the next story?" Jacob raised his hand. "Very well Jacob."

"I wish to tell of why Sirius died. It is a very important lesson for the young, the Alphas and the healers all at once. May I speak of it?"

"Yes. Of course. I am sure that Tyler won't mind hearing it yet again." Ishaan said. We all laughed, even me. "Yes you may."

"Once upon a time, back when Lupus was alive there was peace for a long time. He had a family and they had gone off to live a life with the intention to make more clans. When they had made such clans, two men had a fight over the same girl. They were Alpha, so since they were fighting they joined the fight. Soon there was an all-out war. When Sirius and Lupus heard of such a thing, they were distraught that the children they had raised would do such a thing over one girl. However, there was a difference between their reactions. Sirius was the first Healer but he was not given such a title yet. For we did not think to make such a position. Lupus said he would let his children fight over the girl and soon they would learn their mistakes. Sirius however was angry that such a man who had fathered so many children and stopped such fights before would suddenly decide that they could fight over something so small. The brothers had a fight and Lupus exiled Sirius until he decided that he could see it Lupus' way. Of course, Sirius was the caring type. He was disappointed that his brother would command such a thing and decided that he was joking, but the next day a group of werewolves chased Sirius out of the camp and the borders and declared that if he came back without permission he was to be killed. Sirius decided that since Lupus was not doing anything about his children. He travelled to the warring clans. By the time Lupus decided to change his mind and do something about it, Sirius had already tried talking to his nephews. They did not listen. They were too deep in war and too deep in love to see their flaws. The warriors were just doing as they were told. Lupus headed over to help his brother and that same day Sirius tried again. They denied him yet again. That very night the Ancient Guru clan was going to ambush the Ancient Katani clan. Before they could though, Sirius heard of this terrible crime and decided he would put a stop to it. He went to tell the Katani Alpha, Kenari, about the ambush. He denied it, saying his brother loved him too much to do such a thing but Sirius was adamant and stayed there the whole day. Lupus was in the area by the time night came. At the peak of the moon, the clans were ready for actual blood. They were tired of fighting and were determined that the fighting would end that very night. The two clans readied to ambush each other but what they found instead was Sirius who began to speak to them. He told them that they should stop and think about what they were doing. That if they went on with what they were doing that there would be no turning back. He said that they should turn away from their hatred and their blood lust and turn back toward love and peace otherwise they would all end in blood shed. They listened not. Instead, they had a warrior take Sirius, not to kill him but to keep him from battle. That my friends is where it takes a bloody end. Lupus arrived and saved Sirius, or thought he was doing so, but what caught Sirius' eye was the Alphas, Kenari and Dahliehaie were ready to kill each other; they were in the pose to do so. No one knows how but he got there just in time to keep either from dying but as he did so, the exertion he had made and the blow to his head killed him before they could stop themselves. Everyone stopped fighting. They stopped moving, they were devastated that they had come to this, come to killing their own Uncle over a girl. Lupus, Kenari and Dahliehaie were distraught. Lupus called for the Alphas to stop their foolishness or HE would end their clan and bring them back into his family. They made a rule that night. A rule to listen to reason and to only come to war as a last ditch effort. Lupus, to punish his sons for such a tragedy, killed the very girl they loved."

"The rule is the very same moral of that story. Think twice before you act, go to war as a last resort, and to listen to reason, do not let your heart lead you. You may listen to your heart but not when it says going to war is the best option." Ishaan said. Everyone was quiet. "Now who wishes for the next one?"

"I wish to tell of the battle we just had." Joseph said.

"The one with the Wistins?"

"No Sir. The one with the Shitanai." He answered.

"Very well. Go ahead." Ishaan answered. Oh boy. They did not know what they were engaging into listening to. I sighed and tried not to listen to his story. He always exaggerated. Then my father got my attention.

"Listen." I obeyed.

"Then before Shane could touch Harold, Tyler came rushing in to save the day. He tackled that mean old man and shoved him to the ground. Shane, not expecting it cried out. His son came rushing to rescue but Tyler, being Tyler, dodged and refused to hit the kid. Instead, he just kept knocking him down. Tyler has morals while Shane and Harold do not. All they care for is not losing their battles. Tyler tripped the kid and when Shane got up, he let the kid go. Shane, not knowing someone could be so kind left- no ran! He ran with his tail between his legs and his son followed after him. Ishaan of course had already been fighting… Jerome? Jerome had Ishaan backed into a corner but I came and tackled the guy to the ground. I snarled and beat him until I was pulled away by Ishaan, who let the guy go because of course he, being the one who taught Tyler his manners, didn't want to hurt the guy. The other Shitanai wolves, having seen their leader run, ran after him to pull his tail from between his legs and help him fight another day."

Mathew and I fell over laughing at his description of how the battle went down. Ishaan looked at me. I quickly settled down. However, I could not keep a smile from my face. "That was very enlightening Joseph though I am sure the battle did go down somewhat like that. Who wishes to tell the next story?"

"I do." Casandra said. Ishaan turned to her.

"Very well. You may speak."

"Once upon a time ago there were two Alphas who fought over whose land is whose. They had such a fight that it angered the first wolf and they attacked the second one. That sparked a battle between the two clans because when your Alpha comes into a battle then you enter too. After the battle so many had died that the Alphas decided that they would go their separate ways and if any wolf was to live somewhere then they would put scent markers down to claim their land and borders. From then on we have been doing so and protecting our borders with tooth and claw ever since."

Story 5: Story of a battle Henry helped win

"Yes and I would like to add on to hers." Seisal replied.

"Go ahead. Everyone enjoys stories from you two."

"Very well then. Well this story took place back when Kilak, the previous Alpha before Ishaan, was mentoring me. I was only twelve years old I believe. We had just come back to camp when we were informed that Kolamori, the previous Alpha to the Wintins—"

"Wistals, you senile dumbie."

"Hehe. Yes the Wistals. Kolamori, the previous Alpha to the Wistals had been scented on our territory. Ishaan, who was only four came running to Kilak. He asked if Kilak was leaving yet again. Apparently, Kilak had promised to teach him something. Can't remember what it was…"

"He had promised to take me out of the camp to go exploring. Not teach me something." Ishaan replied.

"Oh yes. Kilak had promised to take Ishaan somewhere. Kilak bent down and comforted him. Ishaan was sent back to his mother, Shitakla, pouting all the way. Hehe. Kilak told me that it would be my first battle, because I can remember something about… Kolamori declaring a threat or something along those lines. He chose Henry, Casandra, Hiriamati who was Casandra's mentor, Gerimay and his second, can't remember that either."

"That was Shimaku." Casandra replied. "Do you want me to tell this story?"

"No. I can do it. So. Where was I? Oh, wait. I remember. Henry was with us and we were walking over to meet them, just in case we had to fight…. Um. Dash garn it. Oh, I remember! Henry was going on about how he would make them pay for trying to ambush us and how that was not very um… wise. When we got there, we were outnumbered. He had about seven when we only had… eight."

"We weren't outnumbered at first you idiot. We fought them first and when we were winning too quickly, they called out and out came reinforcements. Which forced me to go retrieve some for us. It was a long hard run. I hated it at the time. Now I am happy. If I had not done it, we would have lost the whole thing."

"Yes. I am telling this story. You never put in much detail. I am better."

"Sure you are you optimistic bastard."

"I can prove me wrong… I mean you wrong."

"As you were saying Seisal?" Ishaan asked.

"Oh yes. I was saying something. What was what?"

The younger werewolves had to stop themselves from laughing along with Joseph, Mathew and I. "You were at the battle."

"Oh yes. Well Henry was the best fighter you had ever seen there. He helped me, against Hotamini even. I was almost killed in that battle. Only when Kilak beat Kalomri—"

"Kolamori."

"Did we win. We were lucky that we had called reinforcements because had we not, we would have lost the battle and Henry would have been killed. In addition, I need to include that it took him weeks to recover from that battle. He had been interfering with everything."

"No he helped you from losing. He was adamant that we all win in our fights. If you don't include that you are only talking about how wounded he was and just make him seem foolish."

"Well maybe that is the point of this moral thingy."

"What? The moral is Henry was a fool?" Seisal nodded.

"Yes."

"Okay. Talk amongst yourselves until the moon reaches its apex and then we will return to camp." Ishaan said before they could go any farther into hilarious insanity. I walked over to them and sat down. It took them about three minutes before they noticed me. I did not care. Hearing them fight was hilarious.

"Tyler?" Seisal asked.

"Yes it's Tyler, you in denial old senile bastard." Casandra said.

"Hey I might be all those things… Wait I mean I am not all those things but I might talk to the kid if you shut your never ending yapper."

They started into a new fight until I spoke to them, ending it immediately. "Do any of you remember my Mother?"

"Oh yes!" Casandra said. She smiled fondly. "I used to babysit you when Ishaan and her would leave the camp. You were such an adorable little tyke."

"No he was a very fine gentleman. Henry-"

"We are not talking about Henry! Now what was I saying? Oh, yes. Cassy was such a good friend of mine. We- wait. No wrong one. It was… help me remember her name Seisal."

"Who's name?"

"Tyler's mom."

"Oh. Well that is easy. Her name was… Camitala. She is a beautiful maiden."

"She isn't single. She is married."

"Wait. She came from a different clan didn't she?"

"Yes. She came from Zachary's clan. Who is that? What is his clan? That is the only reason why I remember." I wanted to walk away. They had stopped making sense.

Then Father called. "Time to return to camp!" I looked up and he was right. I stood and helped the Elders stand. We followed behind everyone else. Finally, when everyone else was inside the camp, we reached the entrance. Ishaan was waiting for us. "Good boy Tyler."

"Father?"

"Yes?"

"Which clan did my mother come from? And what was her name?" He smiled fondly.

"She came from the Paritians. Her name was Lilian. If you wish I shall tell you stories from when you were young."

"Yes please Father." I said.

"Very well then. I have news for you. I heard it from Florence. Come with me. You are going to want to see this." He said and turned around. We followed him. We went in their den and found Henry, he was heaving to breathe. When he stopped breathing heavily, he stopped to cough up blood. I gaped. As did Seisal and Casandra. They leaned down to hug him. I just scooted closer to my father. I hated this.

"What is the news?"

"That Henry has gotten worse while we were gone. He has begun to cough up blood. Florence says that if he does not get better soon that he will pass on. I wanted to tell you guys first before anyone else could hear of it."

"Why must I know?"

"Because I want you to start taking in the information before anyone else could tell you. Also to mention that he has a high fever. I do not know what is wrong. Neither do they."

"Well they should work harder to figure it out."

"They are giving him herbs for his pain, fever, and cough. They have gone out to collect water for him."

"You are not listening to me Father."

"Of course I am!" he yelled. "I am the Alpha. How many people do you think I have seen die because of sickness? Battle? Birth? Accidents? How many do you think I have seen wounded? Hurt? In pain? It is a very painful thing to see. You should not be complaining right now Tyler. You should be offering words of strength to Henry. So that maybe your words will get through to him and help him fight this off." He said, turned and left before I could say anything else.

I felt tears spring to my eyes. This could not be happening. No. I just had the first fight with my father and Henry was sick and dying. I could either keep crying about it or try to help Henry get better. I felt tears begin to drip down my face. Seisal hugged me and Casandra spoke.

"Don't think too much on it Tyler. You do not understand. Ishaan had a very strong relationship with Henry. Now Henry being on the verge of death, like we all one day will be. This had put him on edge and he has become very moody. He tries not to show it, because as Alpha he has to be strong. Even in the face of death. Even death of one of his clan mates."

"I didn't know." I sat down with them and we sat there for a while. Talking to each other and to Henry. I only had one plan on my brain. Talking to Esther. I would need to get Niklaus to bring her to me or not at all. Especially with Mikael lurking in the village.

Eventually I felt tired. I got up and went to bed, trying to figure out what I should do about this. I could not just let Henry die. One thing was sure; I never wanted to be Alpha.

(Please Read &amp; Review)


	5. Esther

I woke up early, as I promised I would. I got up and headed over to the Healing Den to see Henry. His breathing was so shallow you would swear he were dead, but because he was wheezing, I knew I still had time, if only a little. I sat down by him and began to talk to him.

"Hey Henry. I know you probably can't hear me right now but know that I will find a way out of this for you. I promise. I can't just let this happen. I never spent much time with you guys and I apologize. If you come out of this, I promise to visit more often. I'll make sure to bring you food, water, and anything you could possibly want. If only you keep strong and stay alive long enough for me to see someone." I laid my head against his, praying to God, to Lupus, to Sirius… that he would survive the morning.

"Tyler. It's time for the Dawn Patrol." I got up and followed Ricardo out of the den and to the entrance. Harold, Joseph and Mathew were here again too. This time Ishaan was coming along. I sighed in relief. If I had to lead the patrol, I probably would have been distracted.

"Okay. First, we are headed off to the Wistals to check for a stronger scent of the new comers. If it's fading, we can establish it was just a visit. Then we will check the rest of the borders. Come on." Ishaan said and headed out. I stayed at the back of the crowd, I was afraid to face him after last night's events.

When we reached the Wistal border, the scent seemed to have faded. I sighed in relief. We wouldn't need to fight anyone. Ishaan renewed our scent, we headed off to the others, and I renewed the border against the Northern Village, making sure as hell that it was strong. That was usually Esther's clue that I needed to talk to her. We finished up and Ishaan stopped to converse with me. I wanted to shy away from him but I stayed put.

"Tyler I must apologize for last night's events. I should not have yelled at you like that. I know you are suffering from Henry's health as well as I, but I feel as if we only have a few more hours until his premature death. Of course, I do not wish to speak of such things but just in case, I must schedule Henry's funeral. If you wish you can help Casandra, Seisal, and I with his burial. If you wish." He said and wrapped an arm around my shoulder. I smiled, even if it were a weak one. Being Alpha was hard. So was being Prince. It was our duty to be prepared for anything. The way I was acting, I would not be ready for when my time came. Nevertheless, I still had about 30 or so years, before I had to raise to the duty of Alpha, I would not have it any other way.

"It's okay Father. I apologize for not standing strong in Henry's time of need."

"That is not of your concern yet. I just gave you some advice for when you are to become Alpha. I think that by the time your 40 I'll step down. That should give you enough time to mature." He said and laughed. I laughed as well. I was soon to mature but that meant that I had 2 years, not counting this one. "Now why don't you go have something for breakfast, I do not scent food on you." I went to the food pile and chose a bird and a rabbit for Henry. I took the food inside the den and laid the rabbit in front of his face, he only looked at it before turning his head away from it. He had finished his bird and he hadn't had breakfast either.

"Come on Henry. You need to feed or you'll waste away."

"I'm not hungry." He said and closed his eyes. I moaned. How do you convince a child to eat? I never had to have that problem with my kid because he was in the village being raised by his mother. Harold would do better in this position. Ranael had been a fussy little tyke. I pushed it back in front of his face but he did nothing. I ate my food and then ripped a strip of meat from the rabbit, small enough to just swallow without choking.

"Here. At least eat this. Please." I begged. His breathing evened out as he fell asleep. I sighed and laid the meat atop the rabbit. I got up and left the camp. I approached the border and I heard a twig snap behind me. I turned to see Niklaus behind me. He cursed and looked up. I smiled at him.

"Hello Father." He said and hugged me.

"Hello Niklaus. How are you?"

"I'm fine. You?"

"I'm okay. Where's your Mother?"

"Mother? She is out in the meadow, collecting herbs. She told Rebekah that today she gets to decide how things work in the house for an hour. I wish I could decide what happens." I kissed his forehead.

"Thank you. Now why don't you go find her?" I asked and he smiled before running off. I myself began to walk up and down the border. I was getting impatient when I scented Esther. She was just a few yards away. I ran to her and stopped just before I came in sight of her.

She was picking herbs and she seemed to be taking her time. She'd gotten my message. I walked up from behind her and she startled. I covered her mouth with mine before she could get too scared. She smiled and kissed me back.

"Tyler. What was it that you needed?"

"Must I need something? Actually, you are right. I know better than to call you away from Mikael and the children for nothing. I need you to help me. Henry is dying. He has the symptoms of a fever, coughing, more specifically he coughs up blood. He has lost his appetite. Can you help me?"

"Yes I could but I cannot save him Ty. I can only bestow enough energy upon him for until tomorrow noon. That should be enough time to say good-bye. I am so sorry Tyler. If I could do more, I would. I love you Tyler. If I could stop death, I would."

"I will accept anything I can get. Esther. I don't want to become Alpha. My Father however says that it is only a matter of time. What shall I do? If I cannot stand tall against the death of a fellow Elder, how am I to lead the clan? I can't do it."

"You will find the courage when it is time. Believe me. Most wonderful leaders believe the same as you do. That they will not be able to. However, when the time comes, they are some of the outstanding leaders the people have ever seen. I saw Mikael go through the same thing as you. He also thought he would be a terrible Chieftain. He is wonderful at times, but as all of us, he has his weaknesses. The number one seems to be Niklaus. One way or another Niklaus will find a way to get himself into trouble."

"His weakness is Niklaus?" I asked, wondering how it would be to raise him myself. I led her to the border and she disappeared for a bit. When she came back, she had a poultice of herbs. She walked into the forest and approached me.

"Tyler? Can I see Henry?"

"No you cannot. They would question you and then I would be in trouble with Father for leading an 'outsider' to our camp. I not supposed to be talking to you. You know how they would react if they knew we were doing this behind their backs. Mikael and my Father." I said and kissed her deeply. She wrapped my arms around her and I held her for a bit, as she held me.

"We must go back." Esther eventually said. I sighed. She kissed me and I kissed her back. I watched her walk home out of the woods. I hated that this relationship had to be our little secret. Niklaus was our little secret as well.

I began to walk back home when I saw Niklaus. He was headed toward me so I met him halfway. "Did you find her?"

"No Father. I'm sorry."

"It's okay. I found her. Rather she found me. Don't speak of this to her will you? I love you Niklaus." I kissed his cheek and then hugged him. He hugged me back.

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing is wrong. I just need you to get home before Mikael realizes you are gone." He nodded and kissed my cheek. I kissed his forehead as he walked past me. I smiled. "And Niklaus?" He turned back around.

"Yes Father?"

"Try to behave for Mikael will you?" His face fell for a second and then he smirked.

"Of course."

"Good boy. See you later." I replied and he ran off home. I walked into camp and over to Henry's side. I wrapped it inside a scrap of meat from the rabbit and he had enough energy, he could eat it. I handed it to Henry.

"Henry eat this. Please eat something." I begged. He smiled weakly at me. He nodded and took it from me and swallowed the food… and the herbs. I waited and he didn't seem to be getting any better. When I was deciding to just leave him and go lay down in my bed, he sat up. He seemed energetic.

"Hey Henry. How you feeling?"

"I feel great. Why? How'd I get in here?" he asked, looking around the den.

"You got sick and they had to bring you in here."

"Well best be getting back to my den." He stood up, just fine. I smiled. Esther did it. He really did feel well. I got up and followed him to his den. Ishaan saw us and came over as soon as Henry sat down in his bed.

"Henry? How are you feeling? Are you hungry?"

"I'm feeling fine Ishaan. I may be old but I still have strength in these old bones of mine." He said and patted Ishaan on his back. Ishaan smiled. "I'm starving yeah but I can get me some food."

"Well good." Ishaan went and stood on The Great Tree. "Everyone! Pay attention!" Everyone came out and stood beneath the Tree to look at him. They stared attentively. "We will be having a banquet in honour of Henry's recovery. He has made a fast and strong approach back to full health. Let us take this as a sign that we will be having a long and prosperous year. We will have some struggles at first… but as warriors! We will prevail!" Everyone cheered. "We will survive this winter and come out feeling strong and healthy as ever! Now eat, feast and be merry!" he shouted. We cheered again.

I went and sat by Harold. "Good news about Henry. Right?" I asked.

"Yes. We should take this as a sign that next year we will have a long and prosperous year. Maybe even gain tons more warriors in the process."

"Not to mention we will get more apprentices and children who will grow into warriors as well."

"Yes and maybe this time you will find someone to love and continue the Alpha lineage. Either you or me Tyler." He said and we knocked our cups together. We shared a deer, we may be feasting but we were not allowed to eat too much food lest we end up needing to dig into our Winter Storage.

(Please R&amp;R. Thanks guys!)


	6. Henry Dies

**I think that I will answer reviews like this from now on. It's fun. I answer questions, I don't know how to answer comments BUT I like both questions AND comments. I need comments to know where I can improve on my writings and in points of my story. It also helps me keep writing on my stories. Now on to the story, also if anyone else wants to review I will answer. Okay time for me to shuts it up. **** I won't keep you long then. Also, if there is anything in here you guys don't like I am VERY SORRY! Please do not hate me. Happy Readings!**

I was gently pushed awake. I opened my eye to see Ishaan. I sat up and he smiled. "Tyler, you only have one task today. I want you to go get a bucket of water and something to eat for Henry. Come on get up. When you're done with that, I want you to watch him. Just in case he tries to take another wrong turn."

I obeyed and followed my father out of the den. I took a bucket and headed out. It was still dark out but I could still see. I've lived in this forest my whole life after all. I got water and a deer for him. I went in to the Elder den and found him awake. He was mumbling, as if he were talking to someone. I put the food in front of him and he took the bucket.

"Thank you Tyler." He took the food and took a bite of the meat. "I know I'm not supposed to be here but I'll only stay a few couple hours if you don't mind."

"What are you talking about? Henry?" I asked. He didn't seem to hear me. Was he going deaf? He never had hearing problems before… "Can you talk to me please?"

"Shush. Of course I can. What is it Tyler? I thought you were supposed to be going on Dawn Patrol."

"Nope. I am free from such duties for now. I am allowed to choose again. I wonder if you might tell me a story." I asked and looked up through the branches to see the blue sky. "If you want we can go sit outside the den and talk."

"No if I left this den it would be so that I could take a walk. I might be old but I still like stretching my legs. Go ask Ishaan if we could leave."

"What? You want me to go talk to Ishaan about taking you out of camp even though you just got healthy again?"

"Never mind." He got up, not finishing his food, and went to Ishaan's den. I got up and hurried after him. "Ishaan? I'm going for a walk."

"No. Just go sit down outside your den. You are confined to this camp for at least three days. You know that. I put that rule for everyone. As did my Father." Ishaan said, coming out of his den. "Can you keep an eye on Henry? I am trying to find mentors for Lyle and Chrissy."

"Mentors? Let me and Tyler mentor one."

"You silly fool. Go sit down." He went back inside his den.

"I'll take that as a yes." Henry called. I called his attention to Lyle, who was trying to sneak out of camp. "Reminds me of you, when your Father was out of camp. Many people were afraid to scold you on it because you were the Prince. However, Richard, the deputy before Jonah, would just pick up and distract you. It seemed to work every time." I sighed. Henry was being difficult. I went and picked up Lyle and carried him over to Henry.

"Hello little one. How is your day going?"

"I'm bored. I wanna explore the forest."

"And you will. Very soon. I promise." I told him. Lyle was 6 years old. He had turned 6 a few days ago. It was time for him to be mentored then but we had so many things going on that Ishaan didn't think it was a good time to pull him into the dangers we face every day of our lives.

"I was supposed to get a mentor when I turned 6. But I didn't. I need to prove that I can be useful." I smiled at him.

"Well how about you go get us a hare. Henry was sick yesterday and he could do with some food. He needs some meat on his bones or he might get sick again. How about that?"

He smiled and raced off to the food pile to look for a rabbit. I turned back to Henry. He was already walking out the entrance though. I went over to him and persuaded him to stay home for a bit longer. He sighed and went to find Lyle.

"Hello kid. Want me to tell you a story? A story of Kilak maybe?"

"Kilak? Who's Kilak?" Lyle said and handed the food over. Henry thanked him for it and tore it into three equal parts. He handed us a piece each. I gratefully took a bite of the food. Lyle nodded and as Henry finished his bite, he began to speak.

"Well what about the time when Kilak became Alpha?" Henry asked.

"Sure! I think I've heard that one."

"Well Kilak, as you should know, was Ishaan's father. Before we had Kilak, we had Stormcloud… or at least we nicknamed him that because he ruled wonderfully when times were kind but when the tough got going, he would be fierce, even fiercer than when he was in his wolf form. His real name had been Yilo. He was one of the best Alphas we had ever seen. Then we had a battle with the Wistals. I won't call it a war because it didn't have enough people in the battle, but it wasn't a fight either because it was bloodier than that. During the battle though, Kilak had gotten arrogant in his fights because he was the strongest in the land. However, during the battle, he was ambushed because Gira, the Wistal Alpha, knew of this fact so he knew that if he were to have a chance that he would need to take him down first. His arrogance almost lost him his life. His Father Stormcloud saved him, however. Other wolves came upon him for interfering with the murder of Kilak, that they attacked him. It turned into a bloodier fight there because they killed Yilo, and because we had reinforcements arrive in time, Kilak was saved. He killed a few of the men who killed his father; he was hurt that he had led his father to his own death. When they retreated, Kilak swore vengeance on them but he never did. Because a week after that Gira died by bear attack, I believe it was, and his son took over there. Kilak, when they returned to camp, laid his father down in the grass and he was mourned for two days. Kilak, however, was forced to become Alpha, for if he did not then we would be useless, a pack always needs an Alpha. So Pilinia, the Healer at the time, took Kilak off to the Cave of Secrets and there he became Alpha. That is where you go when you wish to speak to The Ancestors. The Alpha sees Ancestors in his dreams. He doesn't have time to go there unless necessary. He has to deal with events that transpire every day. He needs council with them every now and then but when he wishes for a meeting, he travels there. The new Alpha asked forgiveness for his father's mistakes. Thankfully, even if it did take a while, Kilak accepted."

"When did Kilak have Ishaan?"

"… I think he had Ishaan after he became Alpha. I can't remember how Kilak died but now we have Ishaan as Alpha."

"Okay. I gotta go. My mom's calling me."

"Well that's okay. I'm tired anyway." Henry got up and headed back to his den and Lyle headed back to the Inoperative den. I got up and followed Henry. He laid down in his bed and I sat by him. I sat there for a while, waiting for him to wake. When it was lunchtime, I brought Henry a bird and pushed him. He just lay there. I tried again.

"Come on Henry. It's time for lunch. You should be hungry now. I know I am." I said and shook him.

Seisal and Casandra sat up from the deer they were eating from. The one I brought earlier. They stared at Henry. I shook him again. "Tyler he isn't going to wake. He died in his sleep." Seisal said and walked over to us, followed by Casandra.

"What do you mean he won't wake? Of course he will. He will eventually. He'll get hungry at some point."

"No Henry took an eternal sleep." Casandra said and wrapped an arm around my waist. I shook him again. He didn't wake. I turned around and headed into Ishaan's den. He looked up at me. He seemed worried; he would usually be upset I didn't wait for permission to come in.

"What is it Tyler? What happened?"

"Henry doesn't seem to be breathing." He got up quickly and followed me to Henry. He checked his breathing and began to push on his chest. He didn't budge. He looked to me sadly. "Go get Jacob. Tell him it's urgent." I nodded and ran to Jacob. He wasn't in camp. I looked for Florence. He was here at least.

"Where is Jacob?"

"He left a while ago. He should be returning sometime soon."

I went out of camp to find him carrying home a bundle of herbs. "Jacob! Henry needs your attention! Now!" I called. He looked up and began to hurry. He reached the entrance and handed Florence the herbs. I ran back to Henry as Jacob and Florence headed to the Healing den. I saw that a few people had already gathered around. Ishaan was picking up Henry and carrying him out to the middle of camp.

"What are you doing?"

"We're going to get him ready for Mourning."

"He's not dead is he? We still have time to save him."

Jacob came out with another bundle of herbs but they were different shaped than his other pile. He came over and began to check him out. After a few minutes he turned to Ishaan, his face was longer than the river.

"There is nothing we can do to save him. I can get him ready for Mourning as soon as you wish."

"Start now. I need to take Tyler for a walk." He said and I turned away and headed out of the camp. Before I reached the entrance, he caught up to me. "Tyler I need to talk to you."

"No. I won't hear it Father. He will wake and wonder why we are crying over him. That will be awkward to explain. Wouldn't it?"

"Tyler! You must listen to me!" he demanded.

We were quite some way from the camp before I replied. "Why should I? You are so determined that he be dead. I refuse to believe it. He served this clan well Father. You shouldn't be so quick to assume he's dead. He shouldn't be dead. He doesn't deserve this. Why! Why did he get this? What were they thinking?" I yelled at him. I ran away from him, from the fact that he was dead. He had helped to mentor me when I was a kid. He told me stories that I loved. He was the best storyteller out of all the Elders.

I ran until I was tired of running and sat down behind a tree. I fell down and began to cry. He was such a great man. He didn't deserve this. Why? I looked up to the sky and it seemed to be smiling at me. I growled and looked to the ground. The grass seemed to be frosting over already. I laid my arms across my knees and began to cry into my arms.

Later I had stopped crying and was thinking about how I should have reacted. This whole clan had helped to teach me how to be a wolf. How to be a warrior. I felt a hand on my shoulder and jumped. It was only Ishaan. I looked up at him. He was gently smiling at me.

"Before Henry died, he told me that the Alpha sees the Ancestors. Is that true?"

"Yes. I knew Henry died before any of you because he came to see me. He told me to tell you that he'll be watching you from Heaven and that he will watch as you mature into the Alpha he knows you'll become."

"What did he look like when you saw him?"

"He looked to be 25 years old. That is what told me of his death. I'm sorry he died Tyler. If I could do something about it, I would. But I cannot. Jacob says that the sickness had taken too much out of him and even though he did get better, he didn't have the strength to survive this winter. So he went home with Lupus. Do not worry, son, Lupus and Sirius will take great care of Henry. After all we are all related to them by either son or daughter relationship. So why don't we decide what we will say at his funeral? I know what I'm going to say but how about you?"

"I don't know what I could possibly say to do him justice Father." I whined. "I'm sorry I behaved in such a manner earlier."

"Don't worry about it. I reacted the same way when my Father died."

"I'm sorry about that."

"Don't be. I see him every day in my dreams. Do you wish to be alone? Or do you wish for me to stay with you while you think of what to say? If you say anything?"

"Yes Father I will say something. Will I see him when I dream?"

"If you wish I can take you to the Cave of Secrets tomorrow and we can spend the day there."

"Yes Sir Father." I replied, smiling.

I sat there and watched my Father leave. I began to think of what I could possibly say about his death and do him justice.

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	7. Henry's Funeral

**Review, I will answer. If there is anything in here you guys don't like I am VERY SORRY! Sorry I took so long to update these. Please do not hate me. Happy Readings!**

I was back inside camp and we had him ready for Mourning. I sat with my Father while they finished it up. "Did you think about what you are going to say?" Ishaan asked. I nodded. I was going to speak about how much we loved him and how great he was at telling stories and such. Ishaan got up in the next second. He walked over to the Great Tree and stood atop it. Everyone turned their attention to him by instinct.

"Everyone who wishes to attend step out and into the centre, surround Henry Akatai with your love." Some of us circled him and Ishaan stood taller as he looked to the stars. "Our Ancestors have honoured us with such a great man, we in turn honour the time we were allowed to spend with him. We will miss him for sure, but he has gone to see The Great Alpha Lupus and Sirius. We know they will take great care of our fallen ally. Henry was our friend. He was our comrade in arms. He was our mentor. He was a great father. I can still remember all the great things he has accomplished in his life. Now as we take the transition into the Cold Season, that is what we should keep in mind. Now I wish to let Camoi, Mathew and Tyler speak. Lastly, we shall hear from Seisal and Casandra. Camoi please, come up here." So Ishaan and Liz traded places. She had lost her father. I felt terrible for her. I cannot imagine how it would feel to lose my father.

"Henry was one of the best men I had ever known. He was kind when I needed comfort. He was strong when I was in danger. Heh. He was stern when I needed discipline. Overall… He was always there for me. I know that if he could he would be here with us. I will miss him but as Ishaan said, he has gone to a better place, where a werewolf such great as himself, will NEVER die. That is why I will not cry for him, but feast for him. Long live Henry!" We chanted after her, I smiled. She had done well speaking of her dead father. I hope I will do just as good.

"Now Mathew please take her place." Ishaan said after we died down. Mathew took her place and Camoi sat down with tears in her eyes.

He was licking his lips. He had been Henry's fifth apprentice. "I wish to say that Camoi was right about Henry. He protected the clan like his own children. Once, back when I was his apprentice. I had fell from a tree and broke my leg. I was not allowed out of the camp for a month and I felt useless. Henry however would make me feel better. He would stay with me on his free time, which was quite often but when he did leave, I was supposed to take a sleep anyway. When I would wake, I would find a piece of prey in front of me and Henry would tell me of his outing. He made me feel helpful when I could not move. I want to say that Henry feels and cares for the sick and that he always has. Even when the sick was not me, he would still care for them. Long live Henry!" We chanted again. He spoke a wonderful piece. What was I going to say? I thought I had it but it slipped my mind.

"Tyler please take Mathew's place." I took his place on the Great Tree and stared at all of them. I thought of a little speech I could give.

"I believe that Henry is still with us. We just cannot see him or touch him. Just like all our Ancestors from the past. Henry was wonderful when it came to Retellings. I believe that now that he is with Lupus and Sirius that he will be telling them retellings of us. Henry helped to raise me when I was a kid. For that, I thank him. He told me stories, helped me evade trouble. What was more important to me was that he helped me learn what it means to be a wolf. Without him, I believe that this clan would have suffered. We should be happy that we got so much of his life with us. I know I shall always remember him, even in the future. Long live Henry!" They chanted after me and I traded places with Casandra and Seisal, though they did not get up on the Great Tree because they could not climb that well.

"We want to say that the others are right. If Henry had not been here this long, we would have lost our new-borns last Cold Season. He was the one who dedicated his time to building on more of the Inoperative den and the Young Den. Had he not, seeing as we almost froze overnight, every night, that our children would have passed on before their time." Casandra stepped away from Seisal and he spoke up.

"I guess that Henry was more like a father, to all of us. He was strong and fierce in battle, maybe arrogant at times but it is all the same. He was kind and gentle when in the camp. He knew when to be quiet and he knew when to be loud, sometimes. He was just an all-around great kind of guy. And for that, I say we cherish the time we had with him instead of mourning the time we lost with him." Casandra and Seisal both stepped together to shout the last part of their speech.

"Long live Henry!" We chanted again and then Ishaan slowly took their place up on the Great Tree.

"As we know, Henry was a great man and he shall be remembered through the ages. He will become one with the Ancestors! Long live the Akatais!" we chanted that over and over again until they brought Henry out of the Healing Den and placed him in the middle of camp, between the food pile and Ishaan's den.

"Now I suggest we make peace with our fallen friend. We will sit vigil with him until Moon High! We shall bury him for all his Ancestors to see so that the stars might guide him to where he needs to be." I went and sat by his head and sat with him. I watched the Elders lay their hands on him and I followed suit. After a while, I stopped and let someone else take my place. Instead, I went to sit with my Father.

At Moon High, Ishaan got up as did the Elders, Jacob and Florence. I followed suit. "Do you wish to help bury him?" I nodded and helped them pick up Henry's body. I followed them as they took him to Sacred Grounds. Ishaan and I sat down and waited for the Elders to dig up earth and soon they had a hole big enough to place Henry. We lowered him in and then Casandra and Seisal looked up at the sky.

"Please hear our plea, Great Ones. We wish to deliver unto you Henry Akatai. A great friend and a fierce warrior. A Great Wolf. Please take him with open arms and deliver him into your graces. Long live Henry Akatai, The Son Of Jalak!" Ishaan chanted that and I followed his lead again. We stood there for a while and then we left after another, but shorter vigil.

"Let's go home and rest on this." Ishaan said. I followed him home and I headed toward the Warrior Den but he called me back. "Tyler, I think you should sleep with me tonight. We will be going over to the Cave of Secrets so that you can talk with Henry. Tell me, have you had dinner yet?"

"No Sir." I replied. "Am I supposed to?"

"No. You need an empty tummy for the meeting. I still need to teach you a few lessons before your time to be Alpha." I nodded and followed him into his den, the prospect of sleeping in here with him made his den all that much bigger. I got into his big bed and he laid next to me, wrapping me in his arms. I fell asleep in a matter of minutes. Knowing that Henry was in a better place.

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	8. Cave Of Secrets

**Review, I will answer. If there is anything in here you guys don't like I am VERY SORRY! Sorry I took so long to update these. Please do not hate me. Happy Readings!**

"Tyler wake up. We have to get going." Ishaan said, pushing me gently. I sat up and remembered I was in bed with my father. I got up and dressed myself for today. I headed toward the food pile when Ishaan stopped my movements. "No food until lunch. Come we have a long way to go. It's past our territory and on the border of the Moondogs." I stared at him.

"I have never heard of such a clan."

"They were formed about 34 years ago in one of the Great Battles. You were only a child back then. You cared nothing for what was happening, only where you were to find your next little adventure. We need to wake Jacob. It is customary to bring a Healer with you when you go to see the Cave Of Secrets." I followed him to the Healing den and he woke Jacob. "Jacob, mind coming with Tyler and I to the Cave Of Secrets?"

"No. I'll be glad to. Now that you asked I can actually give Florence one of the only lessons he's missing. Well it's the only one he's missing. Next Half Waning Moon he can have his Healer ceremony. Won't he be pleased."

"Yes, considering that is coming up in two weeks?"

"That would be next week. Maybe. Florence wake up we need to accompany the Alpha and the Prince to the Cave Of Secrets." Florence yawned but got up anyway.

"What if they get hurt while we're gone?" Flo asked.

"They will not, Jonah will be in charge. I've already told him not to let Harold start anything while we're gone. We will be back before Sun High. I promise." Ishaan said.

"Jonah? Okay. Neither of you had food right?"

"What is wrong with eating before you go to the Cave Of Secrets?"

"If you eat before you go there you will have a harder time contacting the Ancestors." Ishaan answered.

"If you try to contact them and your having a hard time they will help you spit up your food and then you could talk to them. It happened once with… Namu. One of the past Alphas. He disregarded the ritual and had himself half a deer and when he went to go see the Ancestors he couldn't get a hold of them so he spat up. So now the Healers tell each other this story to remind ourselves that we should never disregard ritual even if it is with the Ancestors." Jacob congratulated him.

"We need to go now." Ishaan said and we followed him out of the den. I walked with Flo as we left the camp, after Ishaan made sure Jonah knew hwat to do today and he assured him everything was fine. He sent us all off with a good luck.

After we left the camp entrance we took to the East. Toward the Wistans. Jacob and Ishaan talked and Flo spoke up after a few miles, when we were beginning to reach the border.

"I can't wait to be a full fledged Healer. I can begin to work with Jacob instead of being reminded of everything I know. It would be an honor to serve you and your father." He said and smiled. "I can't wait to have my own apprentice. I'm hoping for Angelica. I've seen her at play. She's so kind to everyone. We still have time before she gets old enough to have a mentor."

"That's awesome. Does she have a knack for such things?"

"She keeps wandering into the Healing den. She'll play with the herbs, naming them. I found her in there once, that's how I know. I began to help her with herb names and she memorized them quicker than I did as a kid. Including the use for such herbs. Like you use chamomile with honey to calm down a child or an adult."

"Well I think that is obvious. Honey is sweet so…" I said and noticed we were no longer walking but instead some of the Wistons were intercepting us. Dawn Patrol.

"What are you doing on our land?" asked Winton. Ishaan bowed to him. Winton had come with his daughter, Melody. Melody bowed too. She was only 19. Winton stopped her before she did. "Still yourself." She stood straight.

"We are headed to the Cave Of Secrets. We wish to seek council with the Ancestors." Winton looked at us, counting us in his head.

"Very well then. Move on. Don't try anything foolish Ishaan. I'll know if you do." He threatened. Ishaan only nodded. How could he let someone talk to him like that? Melody snarled at us but shut up when Winton glared at her. "We do NOT wish to send a bad image to the other clans Melody."

I turned to Ishaan as soon as we got out of earshot. "Why did you let him speak to you with such disrespect? He was accusing you of being a theif."

"Because that was not worthy of getting upset over. You must learn such things. You cannot start a fight over something so small. We are on their territory after all."

I silenced myself after that. We met the same greeting when we crossed over into the Moondog clan territory. Though they were a bit more aggressive. Ishaan met it with nothing but kindness. They snarled at us and I bared my teeth at them before following them again. Flo looked at me.

"That wasn't necessary. They are looking for a fight."

"I know. I just don't like being met with aggression."

"None of us do. Though they broke off because they were being too aggressive to the other clans and when the Alpha said something about it they rebelled. Now here they are." He said and we kept walking.

It was morning now and we had reached a cave. Ishaan and the others headed inside and I followed them. This was only my second trip here. I couldn't exactly remember how this was done. We went down a few turns and a some circles, going farther and farther down until we began a steep climb up. When we reached the end Ishaan showed us that we had reached our destination. We had found the centre of the cave and there were many scribbles of history on it. If I looked close enough I could read them. There was a hole in the roof where the moon and sun shone. We waited for the sun to touch the stone. The stone was huge. It hid Florence from me, I could barely see Jacob.

When it finally did, Ishaan sat closer and I saw rainbows hanging in the air and on the walls. It was brilliant. I sat closer as well. He touched his hand to the stone. We followed suit.

"Ancestors. We call upon you to come council with us. We ask of your presence by touching the stone you sent so long ago, back when Lupus and Sirius were our first Ancestors." He said and laid his forehead on the stone. Jacob and Florence did the same.

I laid my head on the stone and wanted to lift my head from such cold material. It felt like frozen water in the winter. I kept my head on the stone and closed my eyes. My vision was black for a minute before I could see a meadow with a river going through it. The birds were chirping and the sun was almost close to Sun High. Then a woman came out of the high grass. She was pretty with long brown hair that went down to her waist and she had light brown eyes. She stared lovingly at me. She came close to me and held me in her arms. I hugged her back and we stood like that for a minute. My mother, Lilian Paritian.

"Lilian?" I asked.

"Call me Lily." She said, kissing my forehead and let me go. "You wonder how Henry is. How I've been and what is going to happen about this Cold Season. You are worried about what will happen and your worried about your son, Niklaus Akatai." She said, eyeing me with a mischievous smile.

I nodded. "Yes I am worried. One of our warriors have fallen and now I don't know what is going to happen this Cold Season. Jacob has promised the coldest one yet and his own death, or so Florence tells me."

"I can't tell you too much on Jacob and if he will die or not. It depends if he has the courage to stand against the odds. I can promise you that it will be colder than last one but only by a two numbers. I do warn you against Mikael. He will learn of Esther's betrayal. Niklaus will reveal himself and he will need help against them. Esther and Mikael. I warn you of your father as well. Don't let him go head to head against Mikael. I do come to tell you that you will be getting an apprentice soon. By the full moon you will have your own apprentice. Be ready." She kissed my forehead and then began to fade.

"Wait! Mother you haven't told me how Henry is doing. What do you mean don't let Ishaan fight Mikael! Please wait!" She was gone and I fell to the ground defeated. This meeting had given me more questions than answers.

"You will be seeing Henry soon. I promise." The wind whispered. I bagned my fists against the floor.

"Mother!"

I was sitting with my head against the stone and everyone was standing, waiting. I got up and turned to my father. "Father I-"

"Shush. Your not allowed to tell me what you saw or what you heard. May it become an omen." Ishaan said. "Let us go home." He said and we walked home. I was left to ponder my questions in my head with the silence of going home.

(Please R&amp;R. Thank you!)


	9. Getting An Apprentice

It had been a week since we headed off to the Cave Of Secrets. I had been thinking about going there by myself, I still needed answers and not being the Alpha I couldn't see them in my dreams. Nor was I a Healer so that was cancelled out too. I watched as Jacob and Florence got ready for what was to happen tonight. Flo was becoming a full-fledged Healer. I was happy for him. I got up to go talk to them.

"Hey Florence." I said.

"Hey Tyler. What's going on?"

"Nothing. I just wanted to wish you good luck in becoming a Healer. I was wondering if you can tell me what it's like."

"Nope. Sorry. Jacob says I must keep it a secret." He smiled apologetically. I smiled and tried to offer him food. "No thanks. I can't have any today."

"Florence, get some sleep. You're going to need it." Jacob called from within the den. I let him leave and headed off to see the Elders. They were telling Angelica and Lyle stories from the past. I smiled at Cassandra as she looked at me.

"Come on in. We have some leftovers from lunch. He won't bite." I laughed and approached the food and took a bite. "By the way, guess what I heard. I'll give you a hint. It's happening today." I rolled my eyes.

"Well that hint narrows it down to… anything." I laughed and she scowled at me.

"I meant the Alpha is doing it today."

"Ishaan? What could he possibly be doing today?" I asked myself. Nothing came to mind. At least nothing out of his usual routine. "I give up. What is it?" I asked, taking another bite.

"Well, don't tell anyone I told you this, but he's assigning apprentices today. I heard your name mentioned."

"Hey! Don't you dare be gossiping you old hag." Seisal said and Cassandra just laughed.

"Not gossip, talking."

"My name?"

"Yes. Why don't you go ask the Alpha?" I nodded and took another bite of the deer before getting up. I followed Ishaan's scent to his den. I stood there until I saw Jonah come out.

"Hey Isha! Your son wants a word!" He called.

"Bring him in." I followed Jonah in and sat down at the table with Ishaan. Jonah sat down with us. "What is it?"

"I heard your assigning apprentices?" I asked. His eyes flickered and he smiled at me.

"Yes I am. Why?"

"I was wondering if you might tell me who the lucky wolf is." I asked, hoping he wasn't going to say me. He never told who it was but he told those who weren't going to be the mentor, why I have no idea. Just the way he ran things. So in a way this was a trick question.

"Yes I could but I need you to go out on a hunting patrol right now. It's the tenth one today. We need to stock up on food. So do that and I'll tell you. I need business taken care of first." So I wasn't going to. I nodded.

"Why don't you come with us? You know, show off how good you are at hunting." I tried. He shook his head.

"No I have to get the extra food packed into the food storage while it's still healthy." He replied. "If I could I would. As I said, work first." He got up and that was my cue to leave. I missed back when I was young. He would spend time with me and I wouldn't need to get work done. Nevertheless, it was good being a warrior because you didn't need to hope someone would take you out of camp.

I left his den and followed Jonah to the warrior den. "We'll get Mathew and Joseph." Jonah said.

So we headed out of camp and I talked to them about it. They were smiling and laughing. I caught two deer and a moose. Though of course since I wasn't in wolf form I had help from my friends. I carried the food home and put it in the pile Jonah put his in.

I saw Ishaan talking to Seisal and they were laughing. I walked over to Ishaan and sat down. He turned his attention to me. I smiled.

"Yes Tyler?"

"When are you going to tell us who the mentors are?" I asked. He smiled.

"Right after my conversation with Seisal. Now please excuse me." He kissed my cheek. I smiled. Though… that was how he made up for rudely dismissing me. Or right now it was.

I looked at the camp and noticed Sholack and Tinama waiting impatiently while their parents tried to groom them. I laughed. Those two were a handful, especially Tinama. She would wonder off if you took your eye off her for a second. Sholack was more of a calm and collected kid. Meaning he would be easier to train.

Ishaan stood up and everyone turned their sight to him before quickly going back to what they were doing, though still keeping an eye on him. It was almost time for dinner. When was he going to announce those apprentices?

He walked over to the Great Tree and jumped on to the top. Everyone began to gather and Sholack and Tinama were itching to move. I knew that they were eager to become warriors. They were tired of being children. I remembered the day I became an apprentice. I was given to my father, though later I would learn that it was customary for that to happen because the Prince needed to be better than the Alpha so when it was time for the Prince to become Alpha, they'd be ready.

I got up and stood at the back since that was the only area left. I watched as Ishaan waited patiently. Everyone was gathered within five minutes. There were no patrols out right now. Tinama and Sholack stood at the end of the crowd.

"Today we gather for a special ceremony today. It is time we gained two more warriors. But as all of you know, to be a warrior you must first be an apprentice. So I welcome to the clan Tinama." He paused in his speech as she came running forward. Patrino coughed at her and she slowed to a half-dignified walk. Her father just shook his head as Naluma smiled with pride.

When Tinama reached the front, she jumped in place and Ishaan looked among the crowd. He smiled to the crowd before he jumped down to Tinama. She stopped and smiled so big, if it were any wider, her face would explode.

"Tinama. Are you ready to defend this clan with your life and with your mind? Are you ready to use your mind and body to help this clan? Are you ready to be one for the clan?" He asked. She nodded vigorously.

"Yes Sir. I am." She said and bounced. I smiled myself, reminded of how quickly the young were eager to help the clan. He lifted his palms in the air, for her to place his on.

"Well then Tinama, from now on, you are moved up in rank. You no longer sleep in the apprentice den." She smiled and put hers on his, after a nudge from Jonah to remind her what she was supposed to do. Her parents moaned. He said all that but in hindsight, he was only moving you from the children's den to the teenager den. They were now 13 years old and they had 7 years to become warriors. Which then he would only move them from the teen den to the adult den. Ishaan let her hands go and hugged her, touching noses with her. Then he let go to call up the mentor.

"Camoi Akatai. Please come here." He said. I heard her stiffen. She walked up to the front, dignified in every step she took. When she reached the front, she stood tall, Henry would have been proud of her. I was proud of her. "I give you Tinama to train in your and the clan's footsteps. Pass down to her your will and speed. Teach her wisdom of the clans. Camoi, are you ready for your apprentice." She nodded solemnly.

"I am." She replied.

"Well then. Welcome your new apprentice." Camoi turned to Tinama and they did the same as Ishaan did to her. Then Ishaan got back up on the tree. "I would also like to welcome another new apprentice to the clan. Please, Sholack. Come here."

Sholack walked up the aisle, dignified and honourable. His eyes showed his excitement. I watched as Malinia and Rockat smiled proud and relieved he didn't react like Tinama. Ishaan jumped down to him.

"Sholack. Are you ready to defend this clan with your life and with your mind? Are you ready to use your mind and body to help this clan? Are you ready to be one for the clan?" He asked. He nodded once.

"Yes Sir. I am." He replied. He was taking this so seriously. I kicked myself mentally. He was supposed to be taking this seriously. He lifted his palms in the air, for him to place his on.

"Well then Sholack, from now on, you are moved up in rank. You no longer sleep in the apprentice den." He did his part in the ceremony and Ishaan let his hands go and hugged him, touching noses with him. Then he let go to call up the mentor. "Tyler Akatai. Please come up here." I inhaled, surprised. What? I forced myself to walk up to the front; they divided to let me through. When I reached there, I stood in front of my father, wanting to ask if he was making the right decision, but knew better than to ask right now. I wasn't ready for an apprentice. Not after all the questions and problems I had on my mind.

"I give you Sholack to train in your and the clan's footsteps. Pass down to him your humour and intelligence. Teach him wisdom of the clans. Tyler, are you ready for your apprentice." I nodded.

"I am." I replied.

"Well then. Welcome your new apprentice." I turned to Sholack and did the same as they did. Ishaan jumped up to the Great Tree and left Camoi and I to our new apprentices. I saw Sholack twitch and he seemed to have stopped himself from jumping, like Tinama did. "Now that we have new apprentices, why don't we eat and have ourselves a nice dinner." He said and we sent our apprentices of to greet the other apprentices. Intertwine as it were. I followed my father. He turned to me. "Yes Ty?" he asked.

"Are you sure I'm ready?" I asked, bewildered.

"Yes, I am sure. Why? Do you doubt my choice? Should I have chosen someone else for his mentor?" He asked. I shook my head.

"That's not what I'm saying at all. I've never had an apprentice."

"Yes and to help you with whatever has been bothering you, I gave you your first. Besides there is a first for everything." He said and kissed me cheek. I kissed him back before he dismissed me. I sighed as he walked off.

I walked over to Camoi. She smiled at me.

"Good job on getting your first apprentice ever. This is my fifth one. Don't worry, they grow up so quickly. In about another few days, we have two apprentices who are becoming warriors. Umak and Rita."

"Good for them. We'll have plenty to say at the gathering." I said, smiling. She nodded.

"Well tomorrow I'm going to teach her how to gather water. This is going to be fun." She replied.

"What should I teach mine first?"

"That is up to you. You are his mentor, not me." I moaned. "Don't worry, I remember my first apprentice. I thought it would be hell, after all… my first apprentice was Harold." I gaped at her. What?! "He was a little brat at first but his behaviour got better. If I remember correctly, he was made an apprentice a few days after you were."

"Yes. He was. He hasn't gotten better; he's still an aggressive person."

"That happened after his training. Apparently, he went into his first battle as a warrior and something happened. He never said what it was. I think Ishaan trained you well. If you don't remember, you started being aggressive before Harold did."

"Yes but Ishaan beat that all out of me. Every time. He disciplined ANY unnecessary aggression." I replied, touching my bottom at just the thought of being as aggressive as Harold and how Ishaan would handle that.

"Oh. Well I'm sorry for that. I can only remember once when my father saw me do that. When I was fifteen."

"Well I'm going to bed." I said.

"Well you might want to tell Sholack to do the same." She replied. I nodded and headed over to where he was talking to the other children. He looked at me, like he was expecting us to go out of camp and do something right now.

"Sholack, I want you to go to bed, if you're going to come out with me in the first thing in the morning. I'll see if we can be on the Dawn Border Patrol." I said and he sighed.

"Yeah, okay." He said before turning back to the others. I turned to go talk to Jonah. He was getting up to go talk to Ishaan when I approached. I smiled at him.

"Hey, Jonah, can I take Sholack out on the Dawn Patrol?"

"Sure. I don't mind. I'll even send Joseph and Mathew. They haven't been doing anything productive lately on the patrols they've been on. Not even today's. They came home with a rabbit and a mouse each." I looked to my feet.

"Thanks. I'll make sure they do something productive. I'm going to bed."

"You've earned it." He said before going into Ishaan's den. I saw Florence and Jacob leaving the camp. I caught up to them.

"Hey, where you going?" I asked.

"To the Cave Of Secrets." Jacob answered. "It's time for Florence Akatai to become a full-fledged Healer." I nodded. They left and I headed into the warriors den. I got in bed and stretched. Today was a long day, not to mention I got an apprentice now. How GREAT was that? I still wanted to spend all my time to myself. However, that was being selfish.

Ramansae tucked me in again, she kissed my cheek. "Congrats on your first apprentice."


	10. First Day Of Training

I woke up early and headed out to find Jacob and Florence heading home. They had come home from the Cave Of Secrets and now they seemed tired, which I would suppose would be normal. I walked over to Florence.

"Hey how did it go?" I asked.

"It was amazing. Now I'm a Healer, instead of a Healer Apprentice." He said happily.

"Well have a good sleep. Congrats Flo."

"Thanks, you too Tyler, you know with the apprentice. I hope Camoi can handle Tinama. You know she was always a handful. In two days we get more warriors." He said and headed back to his den. I waved after him. Camoi got up and retrieved Tinama and Sholack to have breakfast and Joseph and Matthew came out groaning.

"You two be quiet before you wake everyone with your bellyaching." I said and retrieved my own breakfast to eat. I chose a rabbit and sat next to my friends and my apprentice. "We're going on a Dawn Patrol. Then we'll come back to the camp and you can take a nap Sholack." I replied before taking a bite.

"When do we get to work on the fighting techniques?" He asked.

"We'll have time for that." I left it at that and he sighed before turning to Tinama.

When I finished my meal, and the others had too, I got up and headed toward the camp entrance. If I hurried this up, I could go see Niklaus. He was very interesting to talk to or watch from a distance. I didn't really get to spend time with him much.

When we reached the area that was supposed to be laced with the stranger's scent, I noticed that it had disappeared. I had been telling Sholack the names of the scents that his nose caught, he'd already learned the scents of the Clopstans, Wistals and the Villagers. Now all I had was the Shitanais.

I led him toward the last border, his footing was slowing down, he couldn't keep up with the pace but he was only thirteen years old. I slowed when we reached the border. "What do you smell Sholack?" I asked.

"I smell… rotten snake?" he asked.

"The Shitanai smell of trees and grass but what sets them apart from the rest is what they eat. They eat snakes and fish for most of their meals. But like us, that is not all they eat. So lock that scent into your mind. We will be meeting these people on the full moon. The full moon is a time of peace." I said and rubbed against our border to freshen our scent. "Now is time to head back to the camp. After lunch I'll teach you how to hunt, we'll go on a hunting patrol. You do not eat prey until the clan has been fed."

"Meaning at least put a decent amount of prey on the prey pile but lately all we've been hunting for is the stock pile, for the Cold Season." Joseph added. I nodded and headed back toward camp. Sholack sighed and began to follow us.

Matthew walked with him and when we reached home, I sent Sholack to go talk to his friends or to take a nap in the apprentice den.

I turned to go talk to Camoi. I sat by her and she smiled. She had been playing a game with Tinama but now she was getting up. "Hello Tyler. Would you like to watch us practice our fighting moves?" she leaned closer to me and whispered into my ear. "If you like you can help. She is HYPER." she leaned away again and then said aloud. "So how did Sholack go?" She got up and led Tinama toward the training grounds. I would spend the hunting patrol teaching him where the different areas were in our territory.

"Sholack was great. He had trouble keeping up though, is that expected?" I asked.

"Yes, they play but they don't move fast enough to be ready for when they turn apprentice but by the time they've been an apprentice for a month or so, they've learned to keep up. Don't be harsh, not unless their misbehaving. Or at least that's how Henry taught me. If you need any good advice, go talk to the Alpha." She said and we reached the training grounds.

"I was thinking of going on a hunting patrol." I lied.

"Oh, well then, maybe next week we can train them together." I nodded. I walked out of sight before running toward the border with the North Village.

Niklaus was getting ready to leave the village with his friends. They were laughing and shoving each other. One of them shoved Niklaus to the ground and he frowned but of course with his good humour, got up and shoved them back before getting on his horse and riding toward the North. Meaning if I were to follow I would be going into enemy territory.

I headed back to the training field to see that more had gathered here. I was beckoned forward by my father, he was watching them as well. There were at least five out of fifteen apprentices on this field.

"What do you think? Is Camoi a good mentor?" He asked. I looked to see that Camoi was trying to teach Tinama the Flip move. Where you swipe your enemies feet from under them, knock them on their back and land on top of them. Where you can proceed with many a more advanced technique.

"Why do you ask me?" I asked.

"I am interested in your opinion." He tried. I looked at him. I wouldn't say what I was thinking but he smiled and continued. "Okay fine, I'm trying to teach you. As Alpha you need to watch progress of your warriors. Notice Tinama is easily beginning to gain the upper hand. Meaning she is a fast learner. She listens well. Camoi is a strong warrior, it should be hard to gain the upper hand on her, even as a full fledged warrior." He said and kissed my cheek. I smiled before replying.

"Well I don't think that Camoi is actually trying."

"Well then, why don't you 'show her how it works'?" he teased before calling to Camoi. "Camoi why don't you give Tinama an example with Tyler?" He asked. She nodded and I looked at him, incredulous. "You are the one who doubted her." he replied, not helping me. I shook my head and approached Camoi.

"Are you ready Tyler?" she asked. I nodded and Tinama watched us, interested. The only other one watching was Ishaan. "Ready… Set… Go!" She rushed me but I dodged her quickly. I swiped at her and she dodged barely. I swiped my foot in a long semi circle but that didn't reach her either, instead she countered by pouncing me. I rolled us over a few times before getting back up. We were panting, circling each other. She tried the semi circle now but I pushed her foot out from under her by quickly, and hard, swiping in the opposite way than hers was going. She fell on her back and I jumped on top of her and placed my hand on her throat. She laughed before flipping us over and before we could go farther with it, Ishaan began to clap. Tinama joined in.

"Yay! Camoi beat Tyler!"

"I tend not to think of winners when training Tinama." Ishaan scolded slightly. We got up and caught our breathe. "So do you think she was going easy on her?" he asked and I shook my head.

"No. I need to go get a drink."

"We'll try that move once more before we go catch our breathe Tinama." Camoi said.

I left the training grounds and got a drink of water. I felt energized by that. It had been a while since I had been in training or a battle. I had been training, but not that hard. I went back to camp to see Sholack coming back out of the den, stretching.

"Sholack! Get Joseph and Matthew and we'll go hunting." I said.

When he did that, we went hunting and he actually caught a rabbit. For that I let him eat the rabbit, why not? So I caught a deer to replace his rabbit. After that he was yet again tired out. He wasn't the hyper type so I was fine with it. I mean, after outing you get a break anyway.

So after that it was dinner. I had a mouse and brought Seisal and Cassandra a fawn, they didn't eat much, nor would they accept a large piece of prey for meals. They didn't want to 'waste' food in the Cold Season.

I told Sholack to head to bed and we'd try out some battling techniques." I told him and headed off to go see if I could put a reservation on the Alpha to teach Sholack how to fight. Sholack finished off his prey and ran to bed, literally ran. If I didn't know any better he was the aggressive type. However, before I could say anything he would need a month to adjust to his training.

I stood at the entrance of Ishaan's den. "Come in Tyler." He called. I headed inside and he looked distressed before he turned to me, smiling. "What is it?"

"Is something wrong Father?"

"Jacob has a cold, he's had one for a while. He only now told me. He's tried many herbs but I think that the cold air is keeping his cold strong. If it doesn't go away, it might turn into something worse. What did you need?"

"I wanted to ask if you wanted to help me teach Sholack some battle moves." I replied.

"Sure, I'll help you. After lunch. He'll need a full stomach to begin. Besides, I'll be out looking for some astragalus, basil, catnip and echinacea. He says if he could find those herbs then he could bundle them up and ingest them. He'll be fine. All he can find is basil and echinacea."

"I'll take Sholack and Jonah. We can help you. I can't think about losing another wolf so soon." I said and he smiled.

"Very well, we shall go on a herb hunting patrol with Florence. He knows where we could possibly find the herbs. For now get a good night's sleep. We will need our strength." He said and I kissed his cheek before heading off to bed.

(R&amp;R please. Also vote for Klaroline?  ./thevampirediaries/ I will not be able to concentrate until they win! Since Klenevieve is not on there. :) Thank you so much for reading.)


	11. Ishaan Training

I woke up, ready to find the herbs for Jacob. I didn't need another dead wolf. I woke up Jonah and went to find Sholack. I had told Jonah about our problem and he headed off for the Alpha.

I found Sholack asleep in his bed. I shook him awake and he grumbled. I smirked. To be young. "Wake up Sholack, your clan needs you." He smiled and followed me out.

"What are we are doing?"

"We're finding herbs for Jacob. We need astragalus and catnip, he'll tell you what they look like." I headed off to the gathering and I heard Jacob thanking us.

"The catnip's characteristic square stem with brown-green foliage. The coarse-toothed leaves are triangular to ovate. The small bilabiate flowers can be white and finely spotted with pale purple or pink. The astragalus has a hairy stem. Leaves are petiolated, with rachis covered with ascending hairs. Petals are yellow and glabrous." I nodded and headed off. Ishaan followed out with Jonah, and Flo and Jacob left on in their group. I had Sholack, he was my apprentice.

I told him about the Shaded Rocks, where they aren't shaded but we sunbathe on them… whoever came up with that name wasn't exactly smart. I told him about the Snake Pit, where tons of snakes lived. I told him about the river, where we collect water, obviously. I told him of the training grounds, where we trained, I told him of the Gathering Woods, where any clan was safe to enter. It was where we met every full moon. I even told him of the Cave Of Secrets.

I would have just gone to Esther for the plants but the rule was we weren't to interact with the village so that would be against the Alpha's word, something not even I was allowed to do. The reason I didn't was because Sholack was here with me. Esther always had all herbs needed for the season and more, because she was a witch.

When we came face to face with Ishaan's group, I sighed. "Any luck?"

"I found astragalus." Ishaan smiled, showing us his bounty. "I found some that weren't quite dead yet. You find catnip?"

"No, I'm thinking it's either covered with snow, or dead."

"I should hope not." Sholack smiled.

"So we only need catnip? That's great, where did you find it?"

"I found it at the Grove. By the water fall." We went from there and we came to Jacob's group and they smiled, they'd found the catnip, but it was half dead. "Well what can you make of it?"

"It will work." He didn't sound too hopeful.

"If need be, I'll look for more.

"No, go be Alpha, I need to mix these."

"Helping my clan with their problems, small or large, is PART of my job as Alpha."

"Thank you, Ishaan." He and Flo turned back and headed home.

"Jonah, are you sure you didn't see live catnip?"

"Affirmative Ishaan."

"Okay then, let's go home and have lunch, I'll check on Jacob and then you and I can go out and practice." I walked after him, side by side with Jonah, with Sholack walking behind us.

When we reached the camp again, I handed Sholack a stag to eat, I'd eat his left overs. I took food to the inoperative den and fed them, watching as the little ones crawled and cooed away. I left to go see Seisal and Cassandra. They had been given food by Ranael. I nodded at her and left to check on my apprentice. He had finished so I grabbed the deer and began to eat myself.

"Sholack, go see what you can do for the clan. When Ishaan comes, we'll be heading off." I took a big bite and chewed. He did as I said and I smiled. Having an apprentice was quite easy. Even if it was a nuisance.

When Ishaan came over, he sat down by me. "So, how is your mentorship going?"

"It's okay. It's rather annoying but I will do what I can for the clan." He smirked.

"Yes, I remember when I had an apprentice. He was rather annoying himself."

"Are you referring to me?" I asked him incredulous. He nodded. "Stop being a jerk." I laughed.

"Well he never could sit still, he always asked what something was and why it was. Very intriguing mind for such a little one."

"You mean annoying. As you referred earlier."

"Sometimes, his curiosity got the better of him, he once crossed the border to the Shitanais to find out why we 'didn't like each other'." I frowned.

"That was a very long time ago."

"Your right. That was when you were five."

"Exactly."

"Well what about when you defied my order and went back anyway?"

"Oh. That was a horrible idea. They chased me out… sort of. They had their Beta lead me out with the promise of meeting me earlier or something."

"Yes, Shalicka thought you were quite the charmer." I groaned. I heard Sholack come over and smiled. "Okay, let's get to the training grounds. We have practice to attend to."

So we got up and followed him away to the training grounds. "Now I'll go first and then you can try if you wish, if your not turned scared by how good he is." I smirked at Sholack.

"I'm not afraid of anything!"

"Yes, of course your not. You should be." I turned to Ishaan, not even ready for this myself.

"Don't worry, I won't pick up the pace until I see fit. I wonder, since last I trained you, how much better have you gotten?" He smirked. I laughed. I remembered my training as if it were yesterday.

I approached and then when he least expected it I lunged for him. He dropped and rolled and hit me into the sky before rolling back out of the way. AH fuck. I landed hard on the ground. "Ow."

"Care to try again?" I looked at him. I'd forgotten about that move. I got up, grunting, before circling him. He didn't even care to watch me. I tried to swipe his feet from under him but he grabbed my chest and threw me to the ground.

"Ugn."

"Try not to go for the obvious Tyler." I sat there for a minute before grabbing his foot and quickly standing, making him the one on his back. He grunted. "Good shot. Now, let's see what can I do?" He was taunting me. Before I knew it he had toppled me over and he was standing. "Go again. Unless I've 'scared' you out of it." He was using my own words against me. I sighed and he watched me intently. I stared at him and thought of something. I jumped for him but quickly threw myself to the side before tackling him and putting my hand on his throat.

"I win." He chuckled before he flipped us and threw me against a tree.

"Practice has no winners Tyler." I laid there, with my eyes closed. When Ishaan approached, I opened my eyes and pounced him again, succeeding until he kicked me into the air again. He rolled over and pounced onto my back, with his hand on my neck. I closed my eyes, waiting.

"So, Sholack, would you like a go?" I looked up and he got off me. He helped me to my feet. "I'm ready if you are."

"Yeah." He pounced at Ishaan and he simply stepped out of the way, having him skid on the ground. "Got it, don't go for the obvious."

"Right, Tyler, go over there and watch." He pointed and I obeyed, watching my apprentice take on my mentor. He had already pinned Sholack to the ground. I chuckled. "Okay now let's have a go."

Sholack stood and circled Ishaan, Ishaan didn't turn or anything. When Sholack reached behind Ishaan, he pounced and Ishaan ducked, making him fly barely over his back. Wow. I hadn't thought of that. Sholack skid himself on all fours, before turning and zigzagging toward Ishaan. Ishaan jumped and landed squarely on Sholack's back before quickly getting off.

"Ow." Sholack groaned before getting up again.

"Now, shall I have a turn?" Ishaan ran around him and then skidded himself before swinging his leg to knock his feet from under him and following that up with stepping lightly on his chest, light but enough to pin him down. "How was that?"

"Your amazing." He replied. "How did you do that?"

"Easy, I used my weight. Tyler could teach you all sorts of things. Now, would you boys like to team up on me and see who gets the better hand?" I looked at Sholack.

"You up for it?"

"Yeah, we can take him!" I chuckled. Apparently, he's never seen Ishaan in battle… He's never been to battle…

"Careful, that sounded a bit too arrogant, arrogance can get you killed in battle. That is how one of our Alpha's died." Sholack's jaw dropped.

"What? How?"

"I'm sure Seisal or Tyler would tell you."

"Sholack, get on your feet, we're fixing to go up against him. See who has the better hand." He got up and ran over to me. I whispered into his ear to tell him my plan and he nodded, smiling. Ishaan didn't even look worried, in fact, he looked like he was amused. We nodded before we began to circle Ishaan. He just sat there.

I jumped up as Sholack slid under Ishaan, I grabbed for him as Sholack slid himself in a circle to trip him, so we were attacking from both sides. I noticed he wasn't there anymore. I looked around and found him standing feet from where we were. What happened?

"Quite a good tactic. It was inspiring."

"You speak of arrogance?"

"No, I speak of power. Come again."

"Hey, Tyler, I have an idea." he whispered into my ear and I gave him a smile. I approached Ishaan and tried swiping his feet from under him he knocked my feet from under me instead and that was when Sholack pounced, for a minute it looked like he was surprised but then he swung his arm and threw him to the ground, I swirled myself to knock his feet under from him and he jumped, barely dodging. Sholack stood up and I followed suit.

"That was great, you almost got me." I smiled, panting. It was infuriating to be fighting someone who dodged all your attacks.

"I think I learned why, in battle, most go for the Alpha. You can't fight him alone or in twos." He nodded.

"Which is why Alpha's learn from watching their warriors and apprentices train. I learned from all of you, including you Tyler. I learned from my father and from my clan they grew on what I knew."

"Wow. Can I be Alpha?" I smirked, looking away from him. Poor Sholack.

"One day, maybe." He replied, beaming at him. "For now, I shall remain Alpha. What if I give you a day to be Alpha? On the full moon?"

"Awesome." I smiled.

"So are you two ready to head back to camp? It's almost dinner time. Or would you like me to give it a shot?" I moaned, I was already beat up. Sholack shook his head vigorously. "Well then, come along, we'll need to see Flo and Jacob."

"Why you? We didn't even get a hit on you?" I asked, walking beside him.

"Because I need to see how he's doing. I'm proud of you and your apprentice. You've grown quite well in combat."

"When can we actually fight someone?"

"You're not ready for that yet." I replied, laughing with my father. Some days in the clan were awesome like this… even if I did have a strong pain in my back.


	12. Welcome To Warriorhood

I was checking Seisal and Cassandra for fleas, ticks, and any other blood drinking bug that could have possibly gotten on them. "Guess what I heard Tyler." Cassandra said, checking her own self. Seisal was just laid out, comfortably while he soaked in what little sun could pierce through the den.

"What?"

"I heard Rita and Umak are being turned warrior. Put in a word to let me become a warrior again, would you? I'm tired of people thinking that just because my bones are old as the Sun itself means I'm not able to fight or hunt."

"Oh Cassie, your wounds are very old, why don't you be like me and just lie there, warming yourself with the sun?"

"Because I'm not an old two timing grass eared mutt. That's why."

"I have grass for ears?"

"Yeah, you are growing deaf now a days, I have to shout for you to be able to hear me, I'm surprised if you even hear Ishaan call for us to gather to see the apprentices become warriors."

"Maybe what he says is more important than gossip, my dear." She swatted him and I laughed, "I meant to say lovelier."

"Whatever, you always were annoying as hell."

"You're done Seisal. Can I check you Cassandra?"

"Sure, I can't reach my back, why don't you look there?"

"Thanks." I scooted over to her and began my work on her. "So are either of you going to attend? I don't think I will. I've seen this more times than I can remember."

"Oh come on, what could possibly be more important than your clan?"

"Hunting, it's Cold Season remember? Besides I can't handle having a child with me on EVERY outing. I mean come on."

"Oh, I assure you they start to grow on you. I mean they practically become your child. I remember my first apprentice. He was amazing. You know, before you, Ishaan had three other apprentices? Its part of the code we live by so that he'll be ready to teach his own kid."

"Wow. Maybe I should ask him about it."

"You should, he'll tell you things not even I can. Like how he trained Elizabeth. She's older than you right?"

"Well actually his apprentices were… I can't even remember. That was like years ago. His last one was back when Tyler was 6."

"It takes seven years before you can have him turn warrior."

"Seven years? Wow. That is a long time to teach someone."

"Yeah, you got a long road ahead of you Tyler. It'll be over before you know it though. That's why we have plenty more warriors than we do apprentices. Or at least for now we do."

"Fine, I'll see the ceremony. You're done Cassandra."

"Good, I'm happy. Now go off so we can talk alone. Bring us some thing to chew while your at it."

"Yes ma'am." I got up and went to the food pile. I chose a rabbit for each of them, they could save it for later but it was small enough they'd actually consider eating from it. "Here you go."

"Still a bit too big but whatever."

"All those old enough to catch their own prey gather around. I have something to say." I sighed, helping them stand and leave their den, Cassandra pushed me away.

"I can walk Tyler! I'm not helpless."

"Don't mind her, she's feeling extra pushy today."

I walked out and saw Umak and Rita sitting there, like the noble wolves they were. I smiled. I remembered my own warriorhood. It was amazing… though I'm still learning unlike all the other wolves. As Alpha you never stopped learning. Nor did you stop learning as Prince. I was happy Niklaus didn't have to live the way I did.

"Today, I see we have plenty of prey for our food storage for the Cold Season. I notice we have a ton of younglings, unlike any other Cold Season before. I see plenty of prey on the food pile. So I ask, why not two more warriors as well? Umak!" He jumped from his perch and landed perfectly. Umak walked up to him, diligently. "Umak, you have finished your apprenticeship with high praise. I hear you are a fast runner when it comes to the hare. I also hear that you are amazing in battle. I hope that you can add what you have learned and use it to help our clan in it's time of need. Umak, are you ready to drop your apprenticeship and become a warrior? Are you ready to start your warriorhood and move from the apprentice den to the warrior den?" Basically asking him if he's ready to be an adult. Quite funny when you think about it.

"I am." He nodded. Ishaan raised his hand just like when he apprenticed Sholack except that he was going to do something else when this was done.

"Very well then, Umak, from this moment, you are no longer an apprentice, you are one of us, a warrior!" He grabbed his wrist and raised it in the air, high. "Welcome Umak to the clan so that his Ancestors might hear of his accomplishment." We all cheered as one and I'm pretty sure the other neighbouring people heard us. Umak and him touched noses and Umak walked to sit with his mentor. Ishaan turned to Rita.

He did the same thing for her, but he complimented her on her smarts and her wisdom. It had helped us greatly in battles before so I thought she'd be a great warrior. "We shall feast in their honour. And when the time comes, we'll tell the other clans of this development."

We cheered and I got myself a mouse to eat before sitting down near my friends.

"Hey, how's your training go? Can I have him?"

"I would love to, you know I would, but my father would kill me!"

"I'll take that as give it a shot."

"Yeah." I ate my mouse quickly. As I knew I would. "I gotta go, I'm going hunting again." I got up and ran out of the camp, the back way so no one would see me. As if I were going to the bathroom. I ran off and went to the village to see Niklaus sulking around the camp. I guess he was grounded or something. He looked around before sneaking his way out.

I approached him silently and when he turned to run off he ran right into me. "Hello Niklaus. What are you doing?"

"I'm okay. I've been grounded for sneaking Maria out of camp yesterday… we got caught. I mean I never get caught, but I knew it was coming so… I guess I expected it. How often did it take for you to get caught? If you ever did something I mean. That you could get caught for."

"Well unluckily for me, my daddy always knows when I'm doing something wrong. I could never get away with anything but it didn't keep me from trying."

"So you didn't stand a chance?"

"No, I didn't. Nor would you if you lived in the Akatai camp. In fact, what are you doing sneaking out of camp anyway?"

"I'm bored. What more do I have to say?"

"You go back and help your mother this instant."

"She doesn't want me in the house. I've already made enough of a mess as it is."

"Well why don't you go play with the younger children? It's what an Alpha would do."

"I wouldn't be caught dead playing with them."

"Don't act like your high and mighty Niklaus, I know you shouldn't be trying to leave. I can't tell your mother but I sure as could punish you for your behaviour." He jumped at those words.

"You wouldn't."

"Would you like to try me?" He shook his head.

"I'll go back to camp." He kicked a rock and stomped back to the camp. I sighed. Oh Niklaus, what am I going to do with you?


	13. The Grand Meeting Or Something

**This is the early ages, werewolves had developed later … So I'm just going to do this-**

Today was the grand meeting, I knew because my body was reacting to the moon. I was now in wolf form, making the Cold Season so much more bearable, but that meant extra hunting than we were already doing and we were already doing extra extra hunting patrols.

I was lying down, enjoying every single morsel of my skinny mouse. I had chosen it because it was so. I perked my right ear as I heard Ishaan come out of his den again, to announce our hunting patrol since our last hunting patrol had returned just a few minutes earlier. We had a good sized pile of Cold Season prey and we had began to finish it but we were still going at it, why I had no clue, we should let the prey go. I mean we had quite a decent pile of food to eat as of right now and our Cold Season was maybe only four or so months.

"Jonah! Where are you?" I looked up from the skeleton to watch the scene. A few other wolves followed me but most kept to what they were doing. Ramansae came and lied down beside me, watching the same scene.

"What do you think he's doing?"

"Trick question. I already know as do you. He's setting up ANOTHER hunting patrol. I'm so tired from these patrols but I can tell he's slowing them down. I mean it's true we are on a better prey schedule than last year."

"WAY better than last year." She sat up and began to look through my fur for blood sucking insects… I perked both my ears toward my father, hoping for news. Jonah had finally joined him.

"Is the patrol back? I heard they came back." he sounded tired. I whined, my father was working his hindquarters off trying to get the clan in good shape, we were all very well fed. He needed someone to make him stop, sit down, and relax. He's been going out single and in a pack just to help us.

"Yes Sir. You want to send out another patrol?" Jonah seemed irritated and saddened at the same time.

"Jonah. May I have a word in private?"

"Yes, of course." I watched them head into Father's den and looked around. No one was watching so I got up and found my way over to secretly listen in on their conversation. It seemed important, especially since he isn't really sending out a patrol right now.

"Something is coming, I don't know when, but it screams danger. I need to make sure the clan is ready to fight. This is our home and we shall defend it with our lives."

"Something dangerous? Well then shouldn't we bump up training as well?"

"The children are doing well in their training. Even the new wolves are doing well. I need them to eat, so they will be ready to fight, in case we need fight. If we can solve this problem without fighting, I will be pleased."

"Did the Ancestors say what or who it was?"

"No, all they said was that it's dangerous and I should prepare the clan, feed them and find a new place to live. I REFUSE to leave our home land. This is where our clan has ALWAYS lived. Where could we find a better home?"

"Sir, if our Ancestors say we should move, shouldn't we do as they say?" I heard a deep growl.

"No. I refuse, I would rather DIE than move my clan from what they've always known. Besides, I see NO threat that could EVER over power us. We are Akatai and we are proud to be. If you see differently-"

"No Sir. I understand." I heard him whine. If anyone could make HIM of all people do that, it's the Alpha.

"Very well then, I need to speak to my son." I froze before running off to Ramie. She licked my face before she began to speak.

"So what do you think that was about? Why did Ishaan ask Jonah to his den? Are we stopping to normal hunting again do you think?" I looked at her straight.

"Yes. I do. I don't know. I am not the Alpha." I heard a bark and looked to see Father coming over to me.

"Tyler, who should be put on this next hunting patrol?"

"Should you not ask Jonah?"

"I wish to ask you." He sat down, and his chest puffed out. Alphas had more neck fur than the other wolves, I guess it's to distinguish them from the normal wolves but I needed to pay attention to my father.

"Very well." I sat down like him.

"I wonder who should go on the hunting patrol? Who would you pick?"

"Uhh. Ramie, Jonah, me, Matthew and Joseph. I would send Sholack but this weather right now is too cold for him, he'd be sending the patrol home early."

"Very well. Go feed Cassandra and Seisal. I need to council with the young ones. I shall check on the inoperative den, see if they have enough prey for now." He turned and walked off, his tail swishing behind him. I watched as his paws dragged on the floor.

"Shouldn't you be feeding the Elders?" I jumped before heading over to the prey pile and picking out two fat rabbits. I dragged them back to the Elders and Cassandra growled at me.

"Have you fed the others first?" I looked at her, whining.

"Please eat, the others have been fed already. Ishaan asked me to feed you." I stared into her grey eyes and her greyish brown fur bristled.

"You didn't need get such prey for me." Seisal grabbed his rabbit gratefully. I got bowed my first half to her, hoping she'd agree to eat it.

"Please? You two are already almost skin and bone." I looked pointedly to her hindquarters where you could easily see her hip bone. Her stomach was also shallow, too shallow to be healthy. Seisal was only almost as bad.

She snarled once before haughtily herself out of the den. I rolled my eyes and followed her. If Ishaan saw her, he'd not be pleased. She grabbed a skinny vole and stalked off back to her den. I saw Ishaan come back out of the inoperative den.

The wolves I named were sitting, waiting for us to go on the patrol and I went and sat with them. He walked over and we got up, fanning out and we began our patrol. I looked everywhere, hoping for a sign of food. Maybe then Cassandra would eat.

I found a sight of a doe but it quickly ran off. I could easily out run it but I first looked to Ishaan for permission. He nodded. I ran after it, not wasting a second, the snow flying out behind me, the others followed after me, knowing I was running after prey. I caught up to her heels and began to snap at her. She tried to kick me but I dodged.

The others came running up behind her and Ramie snapped at her on the other end. Ishaan ran just behind us, waiting. I snapped again and soon Ramie and I were doing it at the same time. She finally freaked out and we had run her into a trap, where the other two were waiting, teeth bared.

She turned around to run but she came to us. Ishaan pounced and bit into her neck. I followed suit, attacking her other side. Together we brought her down and when she stopped breathing we buried her beneath the snow to hide her from everyone else that might be looking for easy prey.

We kept stalking and eventually went home. We'd caught a few rabbits and I helped Ishaan drag home the doe. He had been struggling and I was beginning to feel like it was up to me to help him be Alpha.

We dropped the prey on the pile and he turned back to his den and took maybe three steps before he stumbled. I caught him using my head and helped him back to his bed. I gave him a vole and he began to eat, slowly.

"Father I think you need to rest."

"Not now that the clan needs me more than ever. Especially with the Grand Gathering up tonight. I will not abandon my clan, Tyler. An Alpha stays for the clan and help them no matter what the cost may be."

"Well get some rest Father. You won't be able to make it to the Grand Gathering if you don't keep up your strength." I wanted to cry out for him but I knew that I needed to be firm, not beg. "I thought you told me a good Alpha isn't stubborn." He stared at me and his eyes seemed to glare at me. I was right and he knew it.

"Very well but then you must take my place for the day. You shall be Alpha for a few hours." I nodded while panicking on the inside. I KNOW NOTHING ABOUT BEING AN ALPHA! He growled before he sighed, giving in. "Fine, leave me. I am not to be disturbed. I need to decide who's coming to the Grand Gathering anyway."

"Yes. You do. Thank you Father." I licked his face before heading outside and sitting down, waiting for the sound of sleeping. It came after a few minutes and I grinned to myself. Harold saw me and growled.

"Get away from there. You have NO right." I bared my teeth at him, my ears went back and my fur began to bristle. How DARE he speak to me like that!

"Watch your tongue Harold, you wouldn't want to end up hurt would you?" he bared his teeth but his ears showed fear. I stood myself up and walked over to him and he began to lower himself to the ground before he seemed to grow angry at himself. He stood straight up and assumed the same position as me. We stared each other down for a minute and when my wolf instinct told me to attack him, another wolf came running over. Ranael. She whined at both of us, putting her back to me and get us far enough apart she stood between us. I looked at her smaller, healthy wolf form and Harold's teeth almost sheathed themselves.

"What is it Ranael?"

"Stop. You can't fight in the Cold Season. It's not healthy. Please Daddy?" I turned my gaze onto him and he seemed conflicted. "Please?" She rolled onto her back, pointing her paws at herself. Harold whined before helping her up.

"Fine. I won't kick his ass today. But one day he'll get what's coming to him." I refrained from reacting to his words. I would WIN in ANY fight with HIM. They walked away and I looked around. What was I supposed to be doing again? I saw a Hunting Patrol coming back into camp and thought about the actions I could take. It was only going to be five hours for me to be 'Alpha'. I sighed before getting an idea.

I followed Jonah's scent to the Cold Season prey storage and barked before actually approaching him. I didn't want to startle him. He turned around and twitched his tail. I twitched mine before walking over.

"What is it Tyler?"

"I wanted to say that Ishaan is sleeping. I convinced him to do so. I've only got three hours before he wakes again. He wanted to know if you'd take his place as Alpha while he's sleeping." He picked some prey out of the storage before putting it down before him and some prey before me.

"Well then, help me carry this prey over to the prey pile. We didn't get anything from our last patrol." I picked up the prey and began to carry/drag it toward our prey pile and then dropped it.

"I'm going to take Sholack out for a bit." He barked and I twitched my tail before running off to the Apprentice den and calling for him. "Sholack! We're going for a hunt! Then we'll try out some of your new battle moves!" He came running out and he froze.

"What happened to you?"

"The full moon happened. Haven't you seen it before?"

"No! I was trapped in the dumb den for a long time. This is my first full moon out of there! I want to go to the Gathering."

"You're going to have to ask Ishaan about that. Follow me." I turned around and headed toward the entrance, Sholack following me. I sniffed around and found the scent of a cougar. Hmm. I followed the scent. Cougars were well met as prey but we didn't really hunt them per say. Not Akatai prey but I'd try it out for myself.

I found it crouched, swinging it's tail from side to side. I secretly made my way around to see it was hunting a dying stag. Had it attacked it earlier? I crouched, waiting. Immediately the cougar came running at the stag and it tried to get away but it'd been too slow. The cougar killed it in a minute. I ran over and pounced the cougar, biting down on its windpipe. It fought me and clawed my ear but it was losing strength. I felt bad for this but it would serve our clan well.

It died and I began to cover them up. Sholack sat down beside me and began to help me dig. I put them down and headed off, motioning him to follow me. He obeyed and we hunted for a while.

When he seemed to be feeling cold I took him off, keeping the prey well hidden, off to the training grounds. He turned to face me and I stood straight, staring at him. I sat down before turning to look him in the eye.

"Are you ready to train? It will warm you up. I'll go easy for a bit but you will need to learn how to handle a wolf because you might be going into battle in your long life. It's forbidden but some clans don't care about rules. We are one who do but you will still need to learn this."

"I'm ready. How hard could it be?" He laughed. I huffed at him. Cockiness gets people killed! I quickly tripped him and jumped onto his back and licked his neck. "What? How did that happen?"

"Bumptiousness never got anyone any where. Arrogance will get you KILLED! Now, let's try this again." I jumped off and went back to my position. "How would you like to start? You or me?"

"You."

"Good. You wish to see the extent of my ability. That works well times in battle but sometimes you should be the first to attack." I ran over to him and wriggled between his legs, making him fall. He grunted and stood back up before trying to pounce me. I moved out of his way. He'd been staring straight at me. I heard Matthew appear and looked over to him.

"Hey, why don't I join in? I want some fun."

"He's training. Not playing." He ran over to me and I almost dodged but he managed to roll me over onto my back and put his paw on my stomach. I went limp and he quickly backed up.

"I'm still not falling for that trick. Come on, show him how WOLVES do it." I looked at Sholack. He was watching cautiously.

"Would you like to watch me and Matthew give it a go?" He smiled before nodding. I looked at Matthew and he began to circle me. I tried Father's trick. I staid still, waiting. He pounced but I jumped landing on his back. I put my teeth around his neck before getting off him and waiting.

"Amazing. Where did you learn that?"

"Ishaan."

"Do you think he'd teach me that?" I barked, lolling my tongue out as I walked toward him, helping him to his feet.

"Yes, I do. Now get yourself to your feet… paws." He stood and quickly turned on me. I bit his muzzle, keeping it from attacking me directly. He clawed at me but I shoved his paw down. I jumped back waiting for him to try something else.

"Nope, your turn." I crouched, pacing back and forth, making him anxious for the moment I attacked. I ran around him, biting his hind leg and yanking him down to his stomach. He kicked me and I backed off, using my paw to wipe away the trickling blood from my face. He tackled me and we rolled over once before he tried to bite my throat. I quickly grabbed his muzzle in my own mouth and forced him down to the ground. He growled before standing up on his hind paws and before I was forced to do the same, I let go. He used his front paws to shove me to the ground and stomped on my shoulders. He'd won. "How was that?"

"Great. Wonderful. Now let me up!" He got off and I jumped to my feet. My wounds had healed from the scuffle. His were already healed and we turned to Sholack. "Did you catch that?" He nodded.

"How am I supposed to match up to that speed?"

"Easy. You learn to follow movements." I answered. I saw him beginning to shiver and turned to Matthew. "Matthew we need to take him back to camp or he'll freeze to death." I walked up to him and leaned against him. I reached up to his waist with my size. Matthew leaned against his other side and we walked him back to the den.

"Stay here kid. You've done your work for today. Come on Tyler. We need to see if Ishaan has decided who is going and who isn't." I turned and headed over to his den. Listening for any sounds of sleep.

"Come in." We entered. He was cleaning himself, trying to reach his back. "What is it?"

"We were wondering if you had chosen who was going to attend the Grand Gathering."

"Yes. I have and I shall inform those who are going an hour before it's time to go. Do not worry though. Both of you are coming." I felt like smiling. Yay me! Then again, as Prince I was allowed to go every time, meaning I didn't count. I had to go because it was a learning experience. NOT going was punishment. A very strict one.

Matthew left but I turned to Father. "May I help you?" I walked over and began to lick him clean. He turned to me and kept at his work, cleaning my fur.

"Yes, I'm glad you came. I need to make sure you are undoubtedly clean for tonight. After all you are still my pup." I laughed.

"I am too big to be a pup." I bit and killed a flea and threw it out of the den. He didn't need any of those.

"Sure your bigger than a child but you are still my child. I shall forever see you as my pup." I groaned, coming out as a whimpery growl… He only laughed. "Well are you ready? What have you done?"

"I am ready. I've trained Sholack, a bit."

"Baby steps every day my son. That is how I did it with you. Still am." He barked, laughing. "Well sit, down. I am finished, am I not?"

"Yes you are finished, clean of dirt and insects." I laid down on my side, letting him clean one side of me before he cleaned the other. "So who's going?"

"Well as Alpha I need to know to keep the clan camp safe and I need to decide who should go and how many should go. So since we have 60 adult wolves we can take about 20. The apprentices are not wolves yet so we in the Cold Season we can only take the oldest ones."

"Yes, we don't want them freezing to death so that would mean that we take 22 wolves?"

"Actually it'd be 25 wolves. Alpha, Prince, and Beta."

"Yeah, I know. But I thought we didn't count?"

"Oh, we do. Just be careful around the other clans. I don't want a fight at on the Sacred Ground where we host the Grand Gathering. I doubt the Ancestors would either."

"Yeah, I know. Don't worry." He nudged me and I stood up, letting him clean my other side. I didn't lie down because I didn't want to make him have to start over. "So who is it?"

"As I have said, I will tell them who does come and who doesn't. I wish to remind you that as Prince, while we go over there, I need you to stay at my left side, Jonah as Beta will take my right side. In no way are you allowed to converse with the wolves while we walk."

"I know what a Prince does Father." I growled. He snapped at me and I tried to shrink as much as possible without getting dirty.

"I don't want your attitude either. I'm not trying to irritate you but I am repeating myself as a duty to your tutelage, I believe you would have remembered but remember the last time we attended the Grand Gathering?" I whined and he kept cleaning me.

"How much longer until I'm clean?"

"I have found dirt on your pelt. I suppose you just finished training his battle skills."

"Yes. I did."

"You should have known better. Maybe I should send you to bathe instead."

"Bathe? I think not, it's Cold Season. The water has turned into ice." He finished cleaning me and walked to look me in the eye, sitting on his bed. Which had been cleaned.

"You mean to tell me that our water has turned to ice?"

"The Vikings are breaking the ice to make more water."

"How do you know this?"

"I have seen it." I replied.

"When? I thought I told you to stay away from them."

"I wasn't trying to approach them, I was trying to retrieve water. I waited for them to leave and collected some of our own."

"Did they see you?"

"No sir. Not at all."

"Are you sure?"

"Affirmative Father."

"Very well then, we must inform our friends."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes, water is one resource we can all share, our water is their water. We share the same water source. Greed never leads anywhere good Tyler. You should keep that in mind."

"Yes Father."

"I need go inform those who are going. You shall stay in here, on my bed. Keep clean." I jumped onto his bed as he left and laid down, licking my front leg. It was clean but I needed something to do. So I wasn't even allowed to know who was going but I knew that The three of us were going. I sighed as I rolled over, waiting. I stared at my paw watching myself flex my claws and soon moved to lick my claws clean.

"Well. Are you ready?" I jumped, how did I not notice him come back in?

"Yes, I'm ready." He stood up and licked my ears once more time. I licked his face in return before he turned and headed out. I followed him, making sure to stay on his left side all the while. I loved the Grand Gathering but I hated the ritual that came with it. I stared at him while Jonah quickly joined us and stood behind him, next to me but on his right side.

"We are the Akatai clan. We have new warriors and we have new apprentices. We are a strong and fruitful clan. We are proud! We are strong! We are Akatai!" He howled and I quickly followed up with him. Jonah quickly followed me and the other wolves quickly followed after him.

He howled about for a minute before running off, I quickly took off after him, trying to keep up since I hadn't been given a warning. Jonah also kept up with me and the group followed after us.

Soon we were standing on a ridge, just yards from the Meeting Place. He turned back to look at us and I stood myself up as big as I could without actually having my paws off the floor.

"Is Akatai ready for this?" They copied me in a way and he he turned back to the area and we howled our arrival and ran down to the area, the others all looked up at us and howled back a greeting. I wanted so much to run faster but I'd follow up the ritual. The Alpha was the one to say how fast we go.

We entered the area and slowed down. Jonah and Ishaan kept going, walking toward the Fallen Trees. I walked over to the Fallen Trees too. It was a pile of four giant trees and three of the Alphas were already standing in a row. Ishaan pounced up to the trees and they began to speak.

I walked off, the moon wasn't at it's peak so we weren't starting yet. I walked over to the edge of the Gathering and I was met by a pair of female wolves. Princess and her best friend. The Princess of the Clopstans. She bumped our noses together.

"Hello, Tyler. Long time no see right?"

"Ceca. Hello. Nice to see you again." I kept walking, trying to get her to leave me alone. She tripped me, making me fall on my ass. I felt her push her head under my neck and I had no idea what to do… Thankfully Joseph came over, snickering.

"Something wrong with your true love Ty?" I looked at him pleadingly. He bumped me hard with his shoulder and I stumbled away from her. "Come on, I have someone I want you to meet."

"Oh and who have I not met yet?"

"You'll see. She's a black beauty, if you can look underneath her jerk demeanour." We walked over to a girl who was just now snarking at a Clopstan. I walked over quickly. "Hey Milany." She turned to us and I growled at her.

"You shouldn't be so mean to him, what did he do to you?"

"I know YOU. Your Ishaan's kid." She bared her teeth at me. "Mind your OWN business." I stared at Joseph.

"What? Hey, he didn't do anything besides ask you how your doing." She snarled at him.

"I am not an Akatai! I don't beg for anyone's love." I snarled at her and Joseph barked, laughing.

"See! You guys are already getting along well."

"I don't think you know who you're talking to but I forgive you." She finally stood up but another wolf, a grey one, came running over. He bit her muzzle.

"Silence. You just turned into a warrior. That doesn't give you the right to be so rude to anyone else. I'm disappointed in you." He growled and bumped her and they walked away.

"You call her a beauty?" He twitched his tail before walking off. I heard a howl. The ten minute warning. I walked over to Jonah and followed him back to the Four Trees. I sat down, waiting. Then all four Alphas howled and the wolves had all found their own place to sit.

"Welcome to our first Grand Gathering in the Cold Season. Who wishes to speak first?" Jerome asked. He turned to the other three and Ishaan stepped up. I tensed myself, what exactly was he going to say? I know about the water turning into ice and of course the usual werewolf stuff.

"I will speak first. I have something important to state." He stood up and everyone turned their attention on him. I saw Jonah twitch his tail, just as tense to hear what the Alpha would say. "I wish to say that we have two more warriors. Umak and Rita. We wish to welcome them into the clan. I looked over to see them standing. Brown and Grey wolf standing proud. The most of the wolves howled for them and I made sure to be the loudest. "I also wish to say we have two more apprentices. Sholack and Tinama." We howled again, cheering. "Our prey is running wonderfully. Now I have news that relates to us all. The water has already begun to freeze. It is freezing sooner than it is supposed to do." Everyone's fur bristled at the news.

"Frozen? Already? How!"

"Cold Season is coming faster than it's supposed to!"

"What are we going to do!"

"SILENCE!" Jerome shouted. "We will find a way past the ice! We are WOLVES! Not USELESS!"

"Agreed!" Zachary called out. "We will find a way past the ice. Ice can easily be broken all you need is find the force to break the ice. Is it solid or is it thin?"

"So far it is thin." He looked down to Jonah and I and I nodded my head in agreement. They were not as of yet using rocks and swords to break through. Jonah nodded too.

"See? No need to worry." Azla replied, sitting down comfortably. "Is that all Ishaan?" He nodded.

"That is all I have to say. Who wishes to speak next?" Jerome stood up and Ishaan sat down. I relaxed now that he stopped talking.

"I shall go next. I have a problem with trespassers. The Akatai and the Village children. I demand you stop doing this Ishaan. Prey on our side of the border is ours!"

"I assure you we are not crossing into your borders."

"Then there is an apprentice who doesn't obey very well. We shall catch him and I shall PERSONALLY report it to you. Our prey is running grand. We have two new warriors too. Miroake and Tumbre." We howled in celebration and he kept going. "We also have two new apprentices. Cinder and Blake." We howled, just like last time. "That is all. Who wishes to speak next?" Azla stood so Jerome sat down and we watched curiously. She was from the Clopstan clan.

"I wish to say that we are doing well in our clan. We have prey, and we have new apprentices as well as new warriors. Sheila, Ronaldo, Ciara, and Kenny." We howled again. I was already tired of it. "We also have a new litter of pups." We called out in celebration. That was obviously what she really wanted to say. "Now who wishes to speak?"

It went on like that until each and every Alpha spoke. Then we began to sing to the moon for about what seemed like an hour but I loved the part that came next. When we finished, Zachary spoke up.

"Now, let's go on for a Sacred Run." It was called Run but it was actually a hunt. I stood up and followed Zachary as he jumped down gracefully from the Four trees. I followed him and we combined ourselves to make ONE pack tonight. This area was huge so we could find a ton of prey, if it weren't Cold Season.

"We hunt as ONE! We are WEREWOLVES!" I howled as we sped up the pace of our running. We stopped at some point and we split up in groups of wolves, not in groups based on our clan.

"So where do we hunt?" I asked. Zachary twitched his ears, pointing everywhere until they finally came to a stop. We headed off, silently stalking the prey he found. When we found tracks he raised his head and howled. I joined and so did Ciara, Shane, and Lorak.

We were answered by other howls and I howled again, telling them where to meet for the prey, we'd found a big herd of deer. There were 125 wolves here, hunting but the deer were still healthy enough to feed five wolves each. Though they were beginning to thin, some were skinnier than the others. They perked their ears, in wait of the sound of danger.

I heard distant howls again after a few minutes. We were ready for our Ritual. I turned to Zachary and nudged him. He howled, making it sound distant so as not to alert the deer, instead make them feel safe. We were joined by five other groups and we raced down to the deer, herding them toward the other wall of wolves.

When they tried to go to the side we blocked them and slowed down. They bounded away and when they were escaping, we raced forward to herd them again. I snapped at their heels and they followed suit, the deer raced forward, trying to split up. We split up to keep them together. Since the deer were so fanned out, we began to zigzag at their heels, snapping. I even came close to actually biting the doe heels.

They saw the other wolves and began to panic. We raced farther forward, snapping and biting at them. The other wolves raced forward and we entered into the herd, bringing down as much deer as we dared.

We dragged the prey off back to the Sacred Ground. What is up with all these words? I dropped the prey out of my mouth finally and sat down. We began to sing to the Ancestors for our food and thankful that the prey had been so plentiful and fat, thankful for our lives and praising them.

I took a bite of the deer and swallowed, looking around. My eyes fell on a familiar figure standing far off. I looked around to see that no one was looking but eating. I walked off to the area that most wolves went to scat at. I snuck up on the kid and I had been right, it was Niklaus. I growled and pounced him, covering his mouth with my tail just to keep him silent. He realized it was me and stopped squirming. I got off him, bit his sleeve and dragged him off, away from the other wolves.

When we were a safe distance away I turned to him, letting go of his sleeve. I growled at him. "WHAT were you THINKING? You could have DIED! Or at least questioned. I don't want anyone finding out about you. By that I mean the Shitanais and Harold. THEY would be furious! Besides, WHY were you out HERE at NIGHT?" He sat down and stared at me. I laid down next to him, staring at him, waiting for an answer.

"I just wanted to see what was going on. I've been hearing the howls for a while now. I was curious." He seemed hurt. I stood up, walked over to him and sat on his lap, licking his face. The only way I could kiss him in this form. He laughed.

"How did you get out here? I doubt your mother knows."

"I snuck out, I'm not supposed to be out here."

"Then WHY are you?"

"Because I snuck out." I stared at him.

"That is NOT an answer."

"I snuck out against Mikael to come see what the howling was about, it's beautiful. It sounds like your singing to the moon."

"We aren't singing to the moon. We're singing to our Ancestors." I licked him again before getting off his lap and lying beside him, my front part on top of him. I'd need to clean myself before I appeared to the clans again. He began to pet me, scratching behind my ears. I felt my tongue loll out as my tail began to wag around. "Niklaus you need to go back home but first, promise me-" I heard my father howl. He was looking for me. I looked at Niklaus before answering his call, telling him I needed to do something. He howled again. I'd need to go back very soon. "Niklaus. PROMISE me you won't return there ever again." I stared hard at him, to make him understand why I needed him to.

"But I-"

"PROMISE ME!" I quickly began to clean his scent off me. He sighed.

"Why? Why do you care? Why do you hate me?" I stopped and looked at him.

"Oh Niklaus. If I could, I would put you in my clan but I can't I'm not Alpha and you're already 17 years old. Mikael knows you as his kid and Esther chose to raise you herself. IF I could I would have took you in. I DON'T hate you, I love you more than you will ever know." I kissed him so much that he began to chuckle. "Promise me Niklaus." I finished cleaning myself of his scent and he stood up, hugged my neck and nodded. "Good boy." I kissed his face once more before he turned and ran off. I sighed. Why? Why must life be this way?

I turned around and ran off back to the Sacred Ground, making damn sure to come back from the scat area I'd left from. I ran over to my father and stopped. "You almost missed your favourite part."

They began to howl, singing. I looked up at the sky. I saw a star twinkle at me. I began to howl, singing of my love for Niklaus. I begged the Ancestors for my son and a good life for my son. I howled my heart out and some time everyone finished and we were talking to other clans.

The Alphas began to howl for their clans attentions. I perked my ears at the sound of Ishaan calling for us. I ran off to his left side and we walked home. I looked to the sky as I walked, hoping the Ancestors heard my prayer.

When we got home, I walked into my den and laid in my bed, laying my head down on my front paws and soon fell asleep.


	14. Getting Home

**Short Chapter**

I was out of the camp with Sholack. It was now May. Cold Season was over, Ishaan had said so but it was still cold outside, so cold the Elders would no longer leave their dens. It was slowly warming up. The only difference between Cold Season and Green Season was that the snow was gone. Though if I was right, this month was when Niklaus was born.

"What am I learning today?" Sholack asked. He'd been learning faster than I intended but that was good. He could enter into battle earlier than Tina could. Tina still wanted nothing but to play around. I was now considering myself lucky she wasn't my apprentice.

"Today, I'll be teaching you how to find your way home at night AND day." Tomorrow night would be another Grand Gathering to attend. Last one had been wonderful. Though I had a feeling that something bad was going to happen. Shawn probably.

"That's boring." He replied. I gently shoved him. He stumbled a bit.

"You've been learning about offence and defence for quite a while now Sholack. It's time to learn something that is JUST as useful as learning how to battle and feed the clan. Finding your way to the clan."

"Just follow the scent duh." I laughed at him.

"Oh really? Smell around then. Which way we should go home. I mean we've been out here for a while." He huffed before actually looking around before closing his eyes and trying to smell his way home. He took about a minute before he started to follow Harold's scent which went to the Warm Rocks, where we sun bathe. I followed him and he stopped, right at the edge of the first rock before turning to face me.

"HAH! We're home." I smiled.

"Look again Sholack? Why don't we hear anyone talking or eating?" He turned back around and saw to his disappointment he'd led us to the Warm Rocks.

"Fine, you try!" I shook my head.

"That was the second thing I learned from my mentor."

"Which was who?" He asked. "Why was it the second thing you learned? I thought battle was the first thing you learned as a warrior?"

"I'm the Prince. MY training is WAY different than yours will be. Or anyone's will ever be. Well the Sun will RISE in the East for Spring and Summer. It will SET in the West for Spring and Summer. I'll teach you the other half when those days come again. The reason I didn't was because you'd just been set as my apprentice during that half of the year. Now OUR camp is toward the North of the Sun."

"But how do I know which way is North compared to the Sun?" I looked up. The Sun wasn't at it's peak yet. It was about a few yards away… if the Sun even used yards.

"Since it is still BEFORE noon we shall turn towards the Sun." He obeyed my order, as did I. "Then we shall turn HALF way away from it to the LEFT." I obeyed and Sholack did as well. "This is North. This is where our clan is at."

"Does that work every where in our territory?"

"Yes. It does, until it is PAST noon. I'll take you out then and show you again. Now. I'll lead you somewhere away from this place and then YOU can try to see if you remember." He smiled. I led him away from the rocks, took him to another marker in our territory before leading him away from there and then led him in a giant half circle. "There. How do we get home?" I asked. I'd done the same thing my father had done for me. I'd almost gotten us lost… or me lost.

"We turn towards the Sun." He turned toward the Sun. Then we turn HALF way away from the Sun." He obeyed and I did as well. What happened to left? Had it been warmer instead of colder, I wouldn't correct him. I didn't need him freezing to death.

"What happened to left?"

"What? Um." He turned back toward the Sun. Then he turned left. "Now?"

"Yes." I nodded and he headed off. I 'tried' to keep up with him this time, letting him lead. We got back to camp after a while of walking and he sighed. The Sun was now saying it was time to eat so I got myself and him something to eat. I took my prey over to the Elders and dropped it before they could deny it.

I headed out of camp to go hunt for my own food. I followed the scent of a moose. I arrived to the area and then something strange happened. The area was no longer tall grass and bushy trees but instead I was at the Sacred Grounds. I stopped dead in my tracks as I saw my Mother coming towards me. I stooped, bowing to her. She clapped her hands.

"None of that Tyler." I immediately stood, honouring her wishes.

"Yes Ma'am." I looked into her light brown eyes. She smiled gently before I noticed there were tears in her eyes. I ran over and hugged her. "What's wrong mom?" I asked, worried.

"Your Father. The Grand Gathering? Something bad is going to happen. I can't tell you what it is, I have been forbidden not to. But I desire to at least try and help you figure out what is going to happen. I just couldn't stand what is in the future." Her hand caressed my cheek. I looked into her eyes, worried more than I'd ever been in my life. "My son, don't let Ishaan go to the Gathering. NO Akatai can go. But then if you don't go, someone you love will die but I'd rather it be them than you and Ishaan."

"Someone close to me?" Esther? Niklaus? … Serenity? My friends? "Who? Please tell me Mother."

"I cannot." She began to sob and I saw her fading. "Don't go to the Gathering. Pain and sorrow await you if you do. The Akatai Clan must LEAVE! LEAVE THE WOODS AND NEVER COME BACK!" She faded away and I screamed.

I looked around desperately. "Akatai… must… leave." I heard the grass whisper.

I bolted off the ground. I'd been sleeping? I sighed in relief. I'd been having a nightmare. It couldn't be telling the truth. I'd just keep Shawn from doing anything he regretted. Besides, the Akatai Clan leave our home land? NEVER! I sighed in relief that it'd only been a dream.

I found the moose scent again and went back to stalking my prey.


	15. Here Comes Your Fate

I was in wolf form once again but this time we were going to the Grand Gathering in Spring, more or less Spring anyway. I looked around for my father and found him looking aged. He was worried over something and he looked tired of all things, though he's had plenty of sleep. I padded over and bumped his head with mine gently.

"What is wrong?"

"I feel bad aura in the air, I know what I must do but I find it hard to do so. I will feel horrible about it in the morning. I know what is coming and it's coming too fast. I don't have the time required to deal with this. Tyler I know with my full heart that you will be a great Alpha. You will surpass even me as Alpha, Tyler. I've seen this. I know what must be done to help the clan. I don't want to do this but I must. It has been decreed as such."

"WHY are you talking like you are going to die? I mean you are the strongest werewolf I know Father."

"Why do you think we turned late Tyler?"

"It doesn't matter when we turn Father. We are wolves, we turn when we want."

"How long do we stay in our wolf forms?"

"24 hours, it doesn't matter. We need to go to the Gathering."

"Yes we do. Gather all the wolves who are coming." I walked around, gathering anyone who going to come and then returned to see Father gazing at the bright stars in the sky. I walked up to him again.

"Seeking guidance are you?"

"I am seeking for another way out but there is not another way out. I am being hopeful in a hopeless situation." I growled at him.

"STOP talking like that." I snarled at him. "You won't be hurt, no one will be hurt, we'll be safe, we ARE the AKATAI Clan." He turned to me, I swore he was smiling even if it was a weak one.

"And that is why you will be a great Alpha Tyler." I whined as he stood up, looking once more at the stars. "Is everyone here?" I looked behind me and he copied the move. "Very well then. Let's go." He turned and, head held higher than I've ever seen him, he began to walk off to the Gathering. He took his time getting there and when we arrived, we were the last clan left to arrive.

He gave the usual pep talk before we ran down into the meeting and stopped, greeting our friends. I felt my tail wagging as I looked up at the Alphas as they began talking. I turned around at the sound of a bark behind me. It was the white and black wolves from before.

"Yes, can I help you?"

"Yeah, where did you get your coat?" The black wolf laughed at her own joke. The other one growled at her.

"I was wondering if I could sit by you this time."

"Sure, why not?" I replied. She tapped our noses together and I froze from shock. Why did she do that? "Uh, nice to see you too." She was flirting with me. I sat down, wagging my tail back and forth, waiting for the meeting to begin.

When it finally did, they didn't talk about much so we had some time to ourselves now. I turned to the wolf next to me and opened my mouth to speak when I heard someone shout.

"INTRUDERS!" I got up as fast as possible and ran over as soon as I did get up. I could smell Niklaus and a new kid. I got over as the other wolves began to get up and run over, I needed to help them and QUICK! I landed on top of the other wolf and pounced off to the children, turning my back on the other wolves. They laughed at me and went to get past me but I jumped at that side, glaring at Niklaus.

"Why don't you RUN?" I demanded. Then I saw it. They were struck stiff with fear. Damn! There's only ONE me! I jumped over to them and knocked Niklaus onto my back as I heard the wolves begin to attack the other kid. He turned and ran off. I heard Niklaus shout with fear, trying to get off. I quickly ran from the wolves who turned back to me and Niklaus. I wouldn't EVER allow anyone to hurt my son!

Niklaus continued screaming. "Dad! We HAVE to go back! He's here because of me. If he dies! I'll NEVER forgive myself. Dad PLEASE! PLEASE DAD!" He became hysteric so I ran faster to get him out of danger.

"I'll go back for him, I promise okay. But FIRST I must get you safe."

"This is ALL MY FAULT."

"No this is my fault Niklaus. I could have done something but now that this happened, a new string of events, terrible events are about to take place. Promise me you'll be safe Niklaus." I demanded gently as I plopped him onto the ground. I'd gotten him quite a way away from them, even for werewolves.

"Dad, PLEASE!" He was crying. I licked his face clean of every tear and turned to him.

"STAY HERE, that is a DIRECT ORDER. I need to go save your friend."

"He's NOT my FRIEND, he's my BROTHER! And I killed him."

"No you didn't. Now STAY HERE."

"Fine. I'll stay here. But… you have to promise to bring him back."

"And I will but staying here, talking about it isn't getting anything done." I licked his face again, something told me this would be the last time I see him for years. "I LOVE you Niklaus. Remember that will you?" He nodded, hugging my neck and I hugged him back as best I could before kissing his cheek once more before turning and running off.

I ran as fast as possible back to that other kid. I didn't meet anyone or anything. It was too quiet. I put my nose to the ground and found that kid's scent. I looked for a direction and began at a run again, keeping my nose close to the ground, following the scent.

I found his body, it had three large cuts on it. He was dead, like freshly caught prey but he wasn't eaten. I howled for him and his death, sad that this had happened. What was going to happen to me? My clan? My Father? I grabbed hold of his arm and slung him onto my back.

I carried him for a while, headed back to Niklaus when I was jumped by Harold. He grabbed my neck in his jaws and bit me. I kicked his chest, forcing him to let go. I growled at him, beginning into the dominant position out of anger and he whined, showing me his stomach before we stopped.

"WHAT were you THINKING?" He demanded.

"What are you talking about?"

"THAT is what you've been hiding for SO LONG, isn't it?! You had two kids who's mother isn't even in the clan, that's why Ishaan excuses the STUPID things you do, THAT is why you pretend not to know scents when you DO know them." I snarled at him.

"YES! THAT is what I've been hiding. I have a child! Is THAT SO WRONG?!"

"YES! ESPECIALLY WHEN IT PUTS THE CLAN IN DANGER!"

"THE CLAN ISN'T IN DANGER!"

"No? We ARE because of your actions tonight! You attacked one of our own! You TRAITOR!" I snarled at him, crouching.

"I AM NOT A TRAITOR!"

"THEN PROVE IT, TRAITOR!" He jumped me, biting my ear. I snarled, knocking him off me using a tree to crush him. He fell to the ground and I got on my back legs, quickly bringing down my front paws to attack him but he moved so that I only hit his back. He bit my stomach and I flinched at his teeth. I bit his leg, throwing him from me with all my might. He went flying into the same tree as before and I backed up, glaring at him. "ADMIT YOU'RE A TRAITOR AND THIS CAN STOP!" He taunted.

"I am NOT a traitor! I am the Prince of the Akatai!" I snarled.

"STOP THIS IMMEDIATELY! We need to preserve our strength for what is to come. I've known about this the whole time Harold. Tyler is not a traitor. He came to me as soon as he'd done what he did. He told me and I've been helping him and now, that secret is out and since you led the attack to kill that child, we will have to leave the forest as soon as possible. Now follow me." My tail was between my legs just like Harold. I looked at the child and then realized what this meant. Niklaus' Mother was Esther. Esther was married to Mikael and this child was Niklaus' 'brother' meaning that this was Mikael's child. His child was dead which means he's going to be furious and now the cat was out of the bag for Niklaus. I looked into the sky. Devastation was surely soon to hit. My Mother had warned me and I had laughed her off. Why don't I ever listen? I asked Mother quietly. To survive this battle, we would have to be strong and this battle would be like none we have ever faced before. I headed home with a sense of dread.


	16. Preparation

I woke up to the sound of murmuring. I looked at my friends, who's beds were empty. I got up and got something for breakfast. I saw my Father talking to the Elders and Jonah. Something was up, people were whispering about leaving the camp to find a new one.

I finished my rabbit to go sit by my Father. He smiled at me before jumping onto the Great Tree and looked at us all in turn. I sat watched him silently. He waited until everyone had their attention on him, which didn't take that long anyway.

"Today should be spent on feasting. Yesterday was wonderful and we have been granted another year of life. However, someone was killed last night. I will not name who started the attack but they should know, from my clan or not, they should be ashamed of themselves. Violence was NOT necessary. I am only happy that my clan didn't help in the attack. Before you calm down, let me tell you something. We need to be ready to move our camp starting tomorrow. This will NOT go unpunished by the village. They will want REVENGE. After all, their leader, Mikael Mikaelson, is a violent man. So I suggest that you all feast for who knows when we'll have the chance to eat again?" He prepared to jump down from the Great Tree but Harold called out.

"How is that fair?! We should be the dominant ones! We are WEREWOLVES! We are AKATAI! YOU said we should be PROUD!"

"Why should we leave? This has been our home for longer since you were born!" called out another.

"WE ARE AKATAI! THIS IS OUR HOME!" Ishaan glared at us all.

"We ARE Akatai! We should be proud! But there is a VERY FINE line between PROUD and ARROGANT! YES! This HAS been our home WAY before I was born! But the Akatai had travelled her so long ago, some cannot remember when we first came here! We had came here for the same reason we are leaving! To LIVE! To PROTECT ourselves! To be FREE from all our past wrong doings."

"I'm tired of running! THIS IS OUR HOME!"

"I understand your concerns but we cannot stay or useless bloodshed shall happen. I would rather not see my clan mates killed in battle. This is the order of the Alpha and you WILL respect it Harold. There is NO question. This is for OUR, ALL OF OUR, benefits." I looked at Harold, he was glaring up at him but he wasn't going to take it any farther. He wouldn't dare. Ishaan jumped down from the Great Tree and stalked off to his den. I ran after him.

"Father, you cannot mean this. Father, they are right when they say this is our home. I grew up here, I was BORN here. What about the other clans? The children? The infants? They cannot walk yet. What are we to do with them? The inoperative ones? Father, think this through."

"I AM thinking this through Tyler. The infants shall be carried by the ones who can walk, we shall take turns. The other clans will do what they have to. Though pregnant, they can STILL walk. Don't dare to challenge me over this too." He replied.

"Father!" He turned on me immediately.

"You should learn what it means to be Alpha. You will be one in no time! You will have to learn to make challenging decisions for your clan too. You may not have been born in the time that I was but a challenge makes a GREAT leader. So don't challenge me on this Tyler. I ALSO feel the loss of having to leave my homeland, whether or not we were here in the very beginning of time, which we were NOT! Go get something to eat, you'll need your strength for what is to come." He turned around and stalked into his den.

I stood there for a couple of minutes, my mouth gaped open. I heard someone come up behind me and turned around to see Sholack. "What's going to happen to us?" He asked, scared. I walked past him, he followed me.

"Nothing. We'll be leaving tomorrow. If the Alpha hasn't changed his mind before then. Until then, let's go hunt." He nodded his head and we headed out of the camp to look for food, keep our energy up for the long journey ahead.


	17. Chapter 17

Note: Sorry for the long wait.

I woke up, sad that we were now leaving our homeland and Ishaan had not even changed his mind yet. I walked out of the den and saw that the only other one that was up was Father. I looked around before walking over to him. He was also depressed. He seemed torn from something. When I took a misstep and a leaf crinkled under my paw, we STILL were in wolf form, he turned to me, ears drooping.

"Tyler I have said for a long time that it was your turn to be Alpha. I have been keeping something from you that the Ancestors have said to me and only me. I have been told that it is time to tell you that very thing."

"Stop being cryptic and tell me then, please Father. I do not wish to see you saddened." He sighed before looking back up at the bright Sirius star. I sat by him and leaned against him.

"Tyler… YOU are to lead our clan away from harm and danger, AWAY from the angry Mikael. Away from your Esther… away from your son Niklaus. The Young Prince. I still remember the day he came into our clan and I first met him. You will be the new Alpha starting today."

"What? So your retiring?" He sighed and stood before walking away from the camp. I got up and quickly followed after him. "Father, what is going on? TELL ME. Please."

"Today I stay behind. I will use myself as a barrier between the clan and Mikael. I will distract him long enough to keep you and them safe, long enough for you to be long gone."

"… But if you stay behind and we leave then Mikael will kill you." I said, almost sobbing. He stopped moving, sitting down and hanging his head.

"As is my fate, my destiny." I whined at his words. Before putting my paws on his back.

"NO! You cannot be serious. YOU will lead. As you always have. Your destiny is NOT to be killed by Mikael."

"It is either I or our clan and your son Tyler! I would rather give one life than waste many lives. I will fulfil my destiny, my ONE TRUE destiny. I will gladly give my life." He replied. I sighed.

"Is there anything I can do to change your mind? What if I stay behind instead of you?" He turned on me.

"NO!" I sighed and Father stood and walked off again. I laid down and laid my head on my paws. What am I to do? My Father is determined I lead the clan off and he stay behind and die. I wanted to howl my grief away but I couldn't. Mikael would hear me and then know where we were.

What is someone like me to do?

…

**Sorry they've been short but it will get longer again.**


	18. My Alpha Ritual

I was lying down at the centre of the camp when Florence walked by with herbs in his mouth. He dropped them in front of me. I looked up at him and he smiled weakly. "Tyler, Ishaan told me what's going on and told me that we should send you to the Cave Of Secrets to become Alpha. That he's staying here and he's going to tell everyone else what's going on right now." I looked away from him, sighing.

"Akatai Clan! Today, I retire. Tyler will take you somewhere safe. Follow him. He is your new Alpha. I tell you this because I think it better that you find out this way. Instead of waiting for me to catch up with the clan."

"WHAT?!" Harold demanded. "You've completely lost your mind Ishaan! Especially if you think Tyler is ready to lead this clan!"

"SILENCE! We do not have the amount of time required to fight over this. This is my last command as Alpha and you _will _respect it." Harold whimpered at his commanding tone. "Tyler will first lead you to the Cave Of Secrets for himself to become Alpha and that is where Tyler will be the new Alpha and I will no longer be here. I shall use myself as bait."

Jonah was the first one to reply to that. He began to howl, low, singing the song of the utmost respect. Then one by one, everyone else joined in. Except for Harold and me. Harold joined after a minute. Ishaan looked at me and I bared my teeth at him before looking away. He sighed.

"Tyler, lead them now." Florence nudged me up to my feet and budged me until I began to move on my own. I heard everyone else file into the line they would have filed into behind Ishaan. The young ones had been turned into werewolves themselves but they were mere pups. I suppose the Ancestors really had planned all this. I stopped in my tracks to look back. The Elders weren't following us. I turned to them, opening my mouth to speak.

"We are too old to make this journey Tyler. We'll stay behind and join a different clan. Zachary's clan. We wanted to see you off before we left. Don't worry about us." Seisal replied. Ishaan leaped down from the tree and bounded up to me before showing me the last affection I would ever receive from him again. He nuzzled his head with mine before speaking lowly.

"You will be a great Alpha Tyler. I've taught you all that I could and there will be new knowledge on this trip of yours to new territory. I have the utmost confidence in you that you will be known from across the land. May the Ancestors be with you." He ran back to his tree after a minute, sat down and watched us leave.

I stared at him for a minute before Florence budged me again. I began to move the clan again and they followed me with no complaints. When I got far enough from the camp, I stopped and looked back. I could no longer see the Elders Seisal and Cassandra. I however could see Ishaan as a dot in the horizon. I howled at them and they returned the howl.

After the final goodbye, I looked back ahead, walking before beginning to run. Florence and Jonah kept up easily with me. As did the others. "So Florence, where is the Cave Of Secrets anyway? Are we headed the right way?"

"Well I know we're supposed to go to the Wiston border. They'll understand this. The sad thing is that Jacob told me that I had to warn the Shitanais of this act because they also would have been attacked by this Mikael man Ishaan spoke of. Which means their Alpha is also staying behind. Which I can understand because the Alpha is always the best fighter. This has happened in the past so their doing the right thing. The Wiston border comes first, then we have the Moondog border, then finally the Cave Of Secrets."

"Short answers please." Jonah replied.

We reached the first border, time to slow down. I slowed to a walk and everyone else copied me. They really were acting as if I were the Alpha. When we came to the Wiston border, I saw five men coming to see us. Men? I licked my chops. What would Ishaan do?

When they came to meet us they looked at us. "Dad? What's going on?" Winton's daughter asked.

"We are the Akatai clan. The Ancestors desire for us to leave but first I need to take a visit to the Cave Of Secrets." I replied, since I was the only one who could speak to them. That's as Ishaan as I can get right now.

"I believe you. You were supposed to go back to normal already. What else could they have planned? I allow you passage. May Sirius and Lupus be with you on your journey." Winton backed the rest of the men away from us to make room.

I quickly walked the clan out of the territory and we came across the Moondog territory. A patrol was coming up and they stopped at us. The same greeting was done but they were sceptical. I stayed calm like Ishaan did the last time we passed through and they let us through though they tried kicking us as we passed. I wanted to snarl at them but I kept calm. That's what Ishaan would do.

We reached the Cave Of Secrets a bit before noon. I headed to walk down into the cave but Jonah stopped me. "Should you not first speak to the clan? Tell them to wait out here? While you go down there with Florence to become Alpha?" Then I remembered I didn't know what an Alpha ceremony was like. I nodded. I turned back to them.

"Here is the Cave Of Secrets. Stay out here while I go inside with Florence. It won't take long." They sat down and got comfortable and Florence began to nudge me into the cave. I licked my lips before heading down there with him. We went down a few turns and some circles, just like before. Then we began a steep climb up.

"We're here. I suppose you don't need a reminder of how this works?" Flo asked. I nodded, looking around the cavern again. The scribbles on the walls were still the same as before. I had only three trips here, this being my third. I looked up to the hole in the roof for the sun and moon that shone there. The sun we would have to wait for a few minutes.

"Actually I believe I will. Last time I came here with you, we were in human form." He barked sheepishly.

"Sorry. Wait for the sun to shine here." I sat down and wrapped my tail around my paws and waited like he said. When it did shine down he padded over to me and lied down next to the stone, lying down next to it. He motioned me to do the same. I lied down right next to him. I could feel his warm brown fur against my own blonde fur.

"Now put your nose against it like this." He said before he fell asleep. I followed his lead and put my nose against the stone and fell asleep myself. I was instantly transported back to the camp I just left behind, for good. I was surrounded by eight different men who instantly transformed themselves into wolves. Alphas. I bowed to my Ancestors and they slightly bowed back to me.

"Rise Tyler, son of Ishaan, grandson of Kilak." One of the seven replied. I rose to look the other wolves in the eyes. There were seven of them. They each stepped up and introduced themselves. The first one who had spoken was a brown wolf. They stepped forward first. "My name is Kilak. I was Alpha before Ishaan."

"Hello Kilak. It's an honour to meet you. It's an honour to meet all of you." I bowed my head to them. Then a black wolf stepped forward. They stared down at me.

"My name is Yilo. Alpha before Kilak. I welcome you to the ranks of Alpha."

The next one to step up was a light brown wolf. "My name is Namu. I was not Alpha before Yilo but I was before Tokolo. Tokolo is busy right now. I have come in his place." I nodded my head in understanding.

The next to step up was a grey wolf, a timber wolf. "My name is Gira. I come not from your clan but from the Shitanai clan. Your clan and my clan may hate each other but if I have learned anything from our Ancestors, it is we are brothers and sisters none the less." I nodded, I would never again hate on another wolf clan. We are one in the same.

The next wolf was a copper furred werewolf. "My name is Tirako. I was Alpha before Namu. I am very old." He looked at the others, laughing. They just smiled. Even Ancestors make jokes. I smiled back too.

The next one was a red furred wolf. "My name is Riluno. I am an Ancient Ancestor. Though not the oldest. I am daughter to Lupus's first son." She sat down, dignified. I copied her. But the last wolf motioned for me to stand again. The white wolf. This one stepped forward, this wolf gave off a powerful and wise aura.

"And my name is Lupus." I stared at him before bowing, as far as I could go. I put myself into the closest submissive position I could. "Rise, you don't need to show submission. You are now an Alpha yourself. That is why I have come. I have always greeted new Alphas for past generations and I will continue to do so for future generations. You however I will keep an eye on. For you will go on the longest and hardest journey of them all. Even harder than my children went on. You will be remembered for millennia to come."

"That's impossible. I'm just a werewolf."

"No, you will earn your own legend, just as I and my brother have. Now, Kilak, say what you have to say so the rest of us may continue." He nodded his head at me. I gulped, this was just so unbelievable to hear. Kilak, the brown wolf, stepped up to me.

"I have watched you grow. You've grown into a fine warrior wolf. I will continue to watch you. You have courage, you have love and bravery. However, you will need more courage than anyone to lead this clan away from the danger that has befallen your comrades." He touched noses with me. "I give you that courage you will need in this long journey ahead of you." I felt my heart swell, I felt like I could take on every village in this region if I needed to. As if I could. "Ishaan will be proud of you. May the Ancestors lead you to good will." He stepped back and sat down, lying down. Then Yilo, the black wolf, stepped up to me.

"Kilak is right. You will need courage. But you will also need patience. I have also been watching the clan. Harold is a fierce one. He has no patience for anything. He loves battle, the taste of blood. However, stronger than his need to fight is his love for his clan, his loyalty is strongest of all. There will be many more like him on your long journey." He touched nose to my own. "With this I give you unending patience for years to come." I felt like I could wait for centuries. I felt calm. He stepped back. Then the light brown wolf stepped up, Namu.

"Kilak and Yilo are right as well to give you those gifts. I however desire to give you knowledge. Never stray from the rituals of our Ancestors." Again I felt something strange inside me, as if I was gaining more knowledge than I could handle in a second. Namu backed up and then the timber wolf stepped up, Gira.

"I know how the Shitanai act, I know of the Akatai and Shitanai rivalry. But in all truth, if we look behind that, we are one. We are ALL werewolves. And that, my brother, is why-" He touched his nose to mine. "-I give you compassion, I give you sympathy, I give you empathy. To guide you when dealing with others." I was beginning to feel overwhelmed by all these gifts. I thought I had all of them already. "You will be a great Alpha." Gira padded off to the others and sat down again. The next one was the copper wolf, Tirako.

"I know how, with this journey, you are about to embark on you will have hard time to find humour or anything of the sort. So..." He touched noses with me. "I will give you the power of optimism." He backed off and sat down with the others again. The next one was Riluno, the red wolf.

"I will give you love of a mother. Your child won't be seeing you for a long time. So the clan will have to suffice. I'm sorry, if I could give you Niklaus I would. That is why I have come. I know how hard it is to watch your child grow up apart from you." She shakily put her nose to mine before walking back over to the others and putting her head on Lupus, who stood after comforting a bit.

"Riluno, when we are done here you may go see him."

"Thank you Grandfather." Lupus got up and walked over to me. He stared at me for a second before speaking.

"Tyler, I shall give you _two_ gifts. My first gift is the power to listen. Listen to your heart, your mind, your Beta and the Ancestors. I give you listening so that you may lead your clan in the right direction." He touched noses to mine, and my legs began to shake. He removed his nose and looked at me again. "My second gift is the power of never giving in, never giving up. Not even in the hardest of times." He touched noses to me again and my legs stood straight as before, as if I'd just now stood up. He removed his touch before padding off to the others. "I will be keeping a close eye on you Tyler Akatai. Your future is one of utmost interest to me." He sat down, turned toward me.

They turned from their wolf forms to their human forms. Lupus had brown hair, yet he was a white wolf. "Now your ceremony for Alpha is over. However, you have one more dreams to come. My gift will help you, power to never give up." Lupus said and they began to fade away. "Farewell for now, Tyler son of Ishaan." I howled my farewell and then everything went black before I was in the Cave Of Secrets Again. I stood up and stretched.

"Tyler, glad you could make it." I jumped at the sound of Jacob's voice. I thought he was dead! I looked around to see Jacob and Florence had been talking. "Sit down over here. I have someone I want you to meet. Or the Ancestors do anyway." I sighed in relief and walked over. They HAD said I had one more dream to come.

When I sat down a black wolf stepped out of the shadows. "Hello Tyler. Hello Jacob. Hello Florence. Nice to meet you two. I have something to say. I ask you to stand Tyler." I obeyed immediately. "My name, can you guess it? My clue is that you've met my brother." Jacob turned to Flo and I and Flo thought hard.

"Brother? I don't know. The only one I know who has a brother is Lupus. So maybe your name is Sirius?" He barked in delight. I smiled. Flo stared at me.

"_You_ met Lupus? Wow! What was he like! Was he wise or was he a joker?"

"He was a very wise wolf. The joker was maybe Tirako. Or maybe it was Namu..."

"ENOUGH gossip. Gossip never brought anything but disappointment or hurt feelings." Sirius scolded us. I coughed, ashamed of myself. "Yes. My name is Sirius. The first Healer there was. I attend all the Healer rituals because I love finding new wolves who want to help their clan instead of fight other clans." He walked up to me and sat down, motioning me to do the same. I obliged him. "I want to give you the gift of creativity. There are many things we do in our lifetimes but yours is a bit different. You have been given optimism but what you lack is creativity." He touched noses with me. "With creativity you can get things done faster sometimes and faster or not, creativity makes everything fun." I felt my mind swarmed with millions of ideas but they escaped my head when I tried to latch onto them. He removed his touch to look at me again. "I will be watching you from now on. You are an interesting lead. But me and my brother will be watching all the wolf clans that are having to move away because of Mikael. Even the Paritians will have to move."

"But what about Cassandra and Seisal? What will happen to them? What happened to Henry? My father? What's going to happen? And what about my mother? And-" He moved his tail against my jaws and I became quiet.

"Cassandra and Seisal will live for another year, with the Paritians and then after having given their all they will join us in the Sacred Hunting Grounds. Henry fought us over who was going to your first dream. I'll let you figure out what that means. Your Father, sadly you already know what's going to happen to him today. He will be joining us today. His death will be caused by Mikael. You are not expected to retrieve his body because that would put you in unnecessary danger. You will mourn him while you leave the area. Your mother will be with him for his last day on Earth. Then hopefully, for your second dream either myself and Lupus will join you or your own parents will. I assure you that everything will be fine." He finished and sat down beside me, moving my head under his and he sat there like that, not moving as I 'cried' about what I'd just been told. "Silence little one. Everything will be okay. In your dreams the Ancestors will all walk, your clans and other clans Ancestors."

I stopped after a few minutes. My gift from Lupus was made obvious now. The power to keep moving forward. Sirius licked my face before he turned to his human form along with Jacob and he hugged us both. Like a… father or uncle. I licked his cheek before he got up. "Now your dreams are over, you will be sent back to the Cave Of Secrets in your own bodies." They began to fade and Jacob, having also hugged and given us a kiss, kissed Flo one more time before everything went black, again.

I looked around before noticing that I was in the Meeting Place. This was maybe the last time I would see it, but why was I here? I sniffed around and then out came another wolf. This wolf was blue. They hurried over to me and touched noses with me.

"My name is Morosho. Tyler, I have urgent information to tell you. Will you listen?"

"Of course I will."

"I'm not supposed to be here so this will have to be quick. You need to appoint a different Beta. Jonah, he would never admit it, but he won't be able to handle being Alpha now that you have to leave the camp. He won't be able to keep up."

"What do you know about Jonah? He'd be able to keep up, he's an Akatai."

"I'm his father, Tyler. Richard told me what's happening so I came over as fast as I could. Please." I heard other wolves coming and I was put back into the Cave Of Secrets and I felt a crick in my neck. I stood up and stood.

"What happened? It took longer than I expected for you to come back." Flo asked, concerned. I shook my head.

"I'm not allowed to tell. Come on, we have to get back to the clan." I said and began a quick pace out of the cave. He ran to catch up with me and we began our short trek out of the Cave Of Secrets. So I was supposed to replace Jonah? But who could take his place?

I reached sunlight and came out, pleased. The others were pacing back and forth and when I came out they stood up again, the ones who had sat down, and got ready to move again, Jonah took the longest to stand up. I stared at him. He was getting old. How long had he been Beta? I turned to walk them off and into new territory but Harold shot up at me.

"Where are you going? We should be headed home, or to help Ishaan, the TRUE Alpha." For once I didn't feel hurt, I wanted to help him.

"Harold, we have to leave, Father said it himself."

"He's _testing_ you! Obviously you've failed at it. Well I'm going back to help him." He turned around and ran off. I growled, despite the new feelings I had.

"FINE! I don't need you!" I growled and began the other way than he did. The wolves just stared at me and then back the way Harold had come. "What? Aren't you coming?" I asked, having turned around to look at them.

"Tyler, I may be old, but I know that you should go retrieve Harold. He could get killed. A good Alpha always protects his clan, no matter how hard headed the wolf seems." He sat down, wincing in pain. I sighed, looking at everyone else. They stared at me expectantly. I felt like growling but I knew it was right.

"Go get him, Tyler." whispered Sirius. I looked around but he wasn't here. I sighed.

"Fine, Jonah stay here with everyone. I need them protected. You know what to do I suppose?" He nodded solemnly. I nodded back and walked around my clan before running full speed after Harold. Who could I replace Jonah with? Wouldn't that hurt him?

I heard growling and snarling and ran faster. I looked at the ground and watched my paws, my shadow. To go faster, I played a game I used to play. I raced my own shadow. My feet were going so fast I almost couldn't keep up with them. I felt suddenly like Sirius did when he wanted to save his nephews from killing each other. I felt love for Harold. I felt like it was my duty to keep him safe.

I reached him and he was howling for Ishaan's death. I walked up to him and sniffed the body. He was dead… I howled too and cried for Ishaan. Before I remembered we needed to get up and RUN. I nudged him with my head and he growled at me, swiping at me.

"Because of YOU our Alpha's DEAD! What do you have to say for yourself this time Tyler!" he growled, pouncing me. He began tearing and biting at me but I didn't do anything. He was angry. I couldn't hurt one of my own.

"Harold, stop. Please." He bit my muzzle in return.

"Take the dominant pose." I heard Namu whisper. Is that what Alphas could do? Hear them talk? I shook my head. I refused to hold my power above their heads. However, the fighting brought a human into the area. I growled at them and the picked up their sword and shield, charging at us. I snarled at him and Harold, unaware of his presence, clawed at my face. I tore free from him and just as he struck his sword out to kill Harold, I tackled him to the floor and bit his sword hand. I held it still as he screamed, how dare he try to harm Harold. I killed the man and then I was buffeted off the man by another human warrior. They ran over, followed by even more men. I was surrounded.

I snarled at them. Harold pulled a manoeuvre that had them reeling back and fell onto the ground. He snarled at them as I stood back up. He nudged me away from them and I returned it. Together we ran from them.

I ran back to our camp. Where we caught our breath. Harold looked around. "Their gone Tyler. Tyler?"

"Yes Harold?" I asked, finally catching my own breath.

"Why?"

"Why what?"

"I was attacking you yet you saved me from that man. Why would you do that?"

"Because as Alpha, I love all my wolves, even the ones who don't like me." I replied, reminded of something that Ishaan once said. "Their gone? You mean Ishaan, Cassandra and Seisal?"

"Yes. Tyler, I don't hate you. I never have. I just felt like I needed to prove myself loyal and the most loyal wolf, even more than Jonah, was you. But now Ishaan's dead. What do we do now?" He cried.

"I was loyal but I still sometimes didn't do what I was told."

"I think we should go back to the others. Tyler, I'm sorry I acted in such a horrible way. Forgive me?" I nodded.

"I forgive you. Of course I do. I love you Harold." I stood up and nudged him. "We're going to have to go at a run back to them." He nodded and ran off, I was about to run after him but I heard Esther's voice.

"TYLER! Wait!" I turned to her.

"Esther what are you doing here?!" She ran over to me and hugged my neck. She cried into my fur and hugged tighter.

"I just had to see you before you left. Niklaus has revealed his true self to Mikael. I turned him into a creature of the night and he killed someone. That is why Mikael has attacked your clan. I'm so sorry."

"It was bound to happen anyway. Remember? The clans… killed Henrik." She held out a bowl to me. I sniffed it. Was that… blood?

"Here, drink this, it will give you strength." I nodded and drank it empty. I licked up the remaining drops from the bowl and then I heard a loud crack and everything went black. I was still in the camp but Henry was here.

"I guess this time is just as good as any time to show up." He looked about 25 and I was in my human form. I looked around.

"Henry?"

"Yep, it's me. Happy to see you. I know you'll make a great Alpha. Morosho was right though. You need a different Beta. This is a new era for our clan. Jonah won't be able to make it as Beta. He's an Elder now. He was going to Elder den in a few more months. However Ishaan died before he could move him. Also that thing with the Henrik kid. So I was going to suggest you take our clan about 500 miles away before you stopped and did the ceremony. Don't worry Ishaan will guide you through the ceremony of making a new Beta. But first you need to find a new Beta. Someone you trust."

"And who should that be Henry?" He began to laugh, hard.

"I can't help you with that Tyler, that's your job now that you're an Alpha. Some things we can help you with and some we can't. Well I think you're waking up now. I'll see you later." He hugged me before disappearing.

I woke up to lying on the floor and a pain in my neck. I groaned, putting a hand to my neck. I looked around and saw Esther, still crying. "I've turned you, now you must feed as well." She cut her wrist and put it to my mouth. I took hold of her arm and moved it away.

"What are you talking about?"

"You are part vampire now. Part werewolf too." I stared at her.

"Did you just _kill_ me?" I asked, horrified.

"Yes. Now Niklaus will one day see you again. You will not die, nor can you die. Unless they ever find out what I linked you to. I'm going to have to leave again." She forced me to drink from her. I gagged afterwards. I felt like I had more power now than ever. I felt great. "Now I will spell you so that you stay in your werewolf form for another two months. Then you will be out of danger of Mikael finding you." She began to kiss me. I was just so confused but I kissed her back.

When she moved away I felt myself transforming again. I didn't scream, I was used to this transformation. I was now a wolf again. "So what exactly did you make me into?"

"The same thing Niklaus is. I need to return to him before Mikael kills him." She hugged me once more before running off, quickly. I took a step after her but stopped. I needed to return to Harold and my clan. I turned around and ran after him returned to our clan. I needed to remove Jonah from Beta and find a new Beta for our clan. "I need to do a ceremony as the Ancestors said. But first I want to wait until we get far enough away from the village."

"Understood Tyler. Should we move out now?" I smiled at Harold, nodding.

"Everyone, move out. We have a long way to go." I said, turning and walking away from the only home we've ever known, never to return here again.

**I'm going to keep this story going this was just the end of this part of the story.**


	19. New Beta

We'd been walking for a week, only stopping at night to sleep and eat. We still had a lot of ground to cover. We'd not ran into other wolves lately. The last wolves we'd seen was the Moondog Clan. I hope that Zachary got away.

It was night right now. I hadn't had any dreams lately with the Ancestors but I had Henry already. Next, if I remember correctly, my parents were up next. Or something like that. Flo would talk about Jacob and Sirius talking to him. Maybe I was wrong. Maybe I'm not meant to be Alpha. The only thing they had done with me was talk to me that same day I became Alpha.

"What are you thinking about Tyler?" Harold asked, sitting side by side with me. He stared at the sky, just like I was doing. "Are you thinking of Ishaan? You know, he'd be proud of you."

"I suppose you could say I'm thinking about him. I think I wasn't the right person to be named Alpha."

"You were the only one ever in line for Alpha. You're Ishaan's kid. I was never in line. I know I competed with you but I was never in the game. You said 'you could say' so what are you really thinking about?" Well then what game had we been playing since we were kids? Maybe it was just a game of rivalry. Which is never a good game.

"The Ancestors. They've not talked to me since the day I became Alpha."

"Well it's not like you were 12 when you became Alpha. They trust you, enough not to think they need to hold your hand while leading this clan. Sure you never led a clan before but you did lead patrols. That is training for this. So will you be having another kid?"

"My wife was Esther. My kid was Niklaus. I don't even know if they lived or if they died." I felt my ears droop and looked higher into the sky. "Ishaan wouldn't have wanted this."

"Ishaan didn't get a choice in this. The Ancestors did. Had they wanted us to stay, they would have struck that Mikael dead where he stood when he learned what happened." I sighed.

"Harold, there are things you don't know. Ishaan was told to leave, I was told to leave, I told to warn my clan not to go but I shrugged it off. As did my Father. I never listen Harold. What is wrong with me? Now because of me, my Father is dead." Had I been human, I would have began to cry.

"I will give you time to tell me if you want to. I don't need to know them. You're the Alpha, you know what's best." I nodded before getting up to walk to a spot to sleep, he bowed his head as I left. "Good night Alpha." I laid down, curled my tail over my paws and laid my head down on top of my tail. I stared up at the sky before closing my eyes to sleep.

When my eyes opened I saw my Father and Mother, they were wolves but they sat next to me. I lifted my head, standing up. Father nudged my head with his, then touching noses with me before Mother did the same.

"Have you decided a Beta yet Tyler?" Ishaan asked. "Jonah is an Elder and would have been moved so by tomorrow afternoon."

"So it's true. I need a new Beta."

"Of course it's true. I was Beta once but since your Father and I had you, I was removed and replaced with Jonah. So I know how it feels to be replaced. Jonah knew he was going to be replaced eventually."

"Did Father ever get the place of Beta?"

"No, never. I was always Prince. Just like you. Anyone in mind?"

"Elizabeth or Harold. I can't decide. Any advice?" He smiled at me, with sympathy.

"I cannot help you decide who should be Beta. But I will guide you through the process, the ritual."

"Mom?"

"Sorry honey. I can't help you either. As Alpha you can make all these decisions yourself."

"I haven't had any training for this part of Alpha! How am I to decide?"

"Your training wasn't finished, how could you have the training? I am here to support you." I sighed before sitting down. This decision, I couldn't help it, was weighing heavily on my mind. He walked up to me and I put my head under his. He sat down, hugging me. Mother leaned against me.

"I'm sorry about your son. However, your wife was right. She has made sure that you two might meet again. So think of that when times get hard or rough."

"Eventually, you'll be just like me. Strong fighter, even stronger leader." He licked me and I thought about it.

"You once told me I would have to deal with wolves like Harold. Maybe Harold should be my Beta?"

"I did. Have you finally learned that? If Harold seems best, then choose him."

"But Elizabeth is older so maybe she would be good."

"Just because you're older does not mean you are better." I smiled at Mom.

"Well that's kind of an answer to my question."

"Lily." She just smiled mischievously. He smiled back before they began to fade. "You'll see someone else next time Tyler. Have a safe journey today and forward." The last few words were whispered in the wind.

Then I sat up straight, I had rolled around to my back, legs in the air. I flopped myself to the side before listening to the others talking. They were awake now. I stood up and instantly Florence brought me a rabbit.

"You should eat Tyler." I nodded. "So how is training Sholack going?" My apprentice.

"I have no time to train a warrior. I have to worry about the clan as a whole. Do you think I could trade Jonah for Harold and give Jonah my apprentice?"

"That is your decision. But I do agree that you don't really have time to train an apprentice. Eventually we'll find a place to settle down and then we can live there for the rest of our lives, or not. Maybe later on your great great great great grandchild will have to lead the clan to another destination." He smiled, joking.

I finished my meal before standing up. Everyone turned their attention to me immediately. I smiled before talking to them. "Are we ready to move on?" No one made any complaints. "Then let's move out." I replied, turning around and heading out, leading them farther from the danger, sighing and frowning as we went. Tomorrow afternoon, I'd remove Jonah, put Harold in Beta, and give Sholack to Jonah. I stared at the clouds, hoping I was making the right decision.

It was night time and we had found a place to stay for a few days. Ishaan was sitting next to me, looking around. I turned to him. "Father?" I whispered. He smiled at me, before whispering back.

"Yes?"

"What are you looking for?"

"A place to do this ritual, somewhere for you to stand, somewhere you can stand and jump down and then back up. Like Alphas did in the Akatai camp." I looked around, trying to help him. He went over and stood at an already slanted tree. "Tyler, come over here." I followed his command and stared at the tree. "All this tree needs is a little push." He put his front paws on the trunk and looked at me. I jumped above him and pushed harder, together we knocked the tree down enough to make it look like the tree or whatever back in the camp. "Good job Tyler, now talk to the clan. They know something is up." I looked to see them and sure enough they were gathering around the base of the tree. I cleared my throat before looking at Ishaan. He smiled, walked up the tree and budged me to the centre of it. "Say something to them."

"The Akatai Clan has traveled far these last few days. Farther than we have probably ever travelled." They howled their approval and then were quiet again. "I am proud of my clan and would like to do a few-"

"Ceremonies."

"-ceremonies." I was going to say rituals. They paid instant attention, happy to be back to something that they know. I had chosen Harold because despite everything he's done and I have done, he adapts well to different things and he's younger.

"Okay now call them up to the tree."

"Harold, Jonah. Please -"

"Step forward, not on the tree."

"-step forward." They obeyed, even though Jonah limped a bit. "Jonah, you have served this clan well these past-"

"30 years."

"-30 years. Your clan honours you and respects you for your service. You have had several apprentices and you have passed down your skills very effectively."

"Now jump down and join him." I jumped down, followed by Ishaan. "Touch your nose to his." I obeyed. "Now quickly say that he is removed from Beta and is here by declared an Elder." I quickly repeated him so it didn't look like I was being hesitant. "Now bow to him. He will bow back." I bowed and he did bow back. "Now turn to Harold and say something. Like his qualities that you picked him for." I almost nodded but I turned to Harold.

"Harold, you will take Jonah's place. I honour your loyalty and your bravery in battle and life. Your adaptability will come in handy many times in this adventure to find a new home." Then I stepped up to Harold.

"Say that he is from now on the Beta of the Akatai Clan and then you will both touch noses." I obeyed and Harold smiled. "Now jump back up there and howl, and the Ancestors will howl with you. I always enjoyed that feeling." I jumped back up to the tree, that we knocked over, and howled into the sky. Dad was right, the Ancestors, I could feel beside me, howled as well. The whole Clan followed after ward. I looked at Ishaan but he was gone. Instead he was in the stars. "Good job. Farewell for now, my son." He disappeared soon after that.

I jumped down after a while and sent them to sleep, we would need to travel farther because of that ceremony. We howled, the one thing I was told not to do until we went far enough to start seeing other werewolves. Which we had not. However the Ancestors had wanted me to do so. I curled up and fell asleep, thinking, wondering if my clan would be okay.


	20. Sirius And Lupus

When I woke up, I was in the Akatai Camp from before. I looked around, confused and came face to face with a black wolf and a white wolf. They watched me as I stood up, I knew who they were the instant I saw them. Lupus and Sirius. I bowed to them before sitting up straight.

They both trotted forward and sat before me before speaking. "Tyler Akatai. I have been watching you. Ishaan was right, you have not had the training, the full training for your Alphahood. Therefore I have decided that I will be teaching you in your dreams every other day and the other days you will learn from Sirius, until you are ready. Your clan needs a confident Alpha. I don't believe you to have the experience needed because I know what happened. You were to be made Alpha in ten more years." Lupus said.

"So I and my brother decided to teach you ourselves, just like the Shitanai Alpha. We're training him too, his father has also joined our ranks. Any questions?"

"It is an honour to speak to you both. It is an honour to see you both."

"Stop, I don't have need of your humility. You are my son and you will act as such. Now, any questions before we begin?"

"I know the stories about you having seven children?"

"What about them?" He asked, kindly.

"Did they all get taught the same thing?"

"Yes, they were taught all the same thing. Every Prince is taught the same thing, some are taught more. Some are taught differently. Like the Moondog Clan. At the youngest age, they are taught to be cruel to their enemies. I am not pleased with them, but I still love them and visit them. They still respect me, no matter how cruel they are."

"Any more questions?"

"Why are you going to teach me instead of let me out on my own? You've never shown this interest before."

"Because it is important that you know how to be an Alpha. Your training was not finished. I have never shown you this interest before because you were not Alpha, to see me you would have had to go to the Cave Of Secrets every day."

"If there are so many werewolves around the world, then how do you see them all?"

"Because we own the skies when we die. I made sure of that when I died."

"Thank you for answering my questions." I bowed my head and they bowed theirs too.

"Now return to the waking world and I will see you tonight. Move the clan out Tyler." Lupus said. I was transported back to the waking world and I stood up, looking around for them. They were not in sight. The clan was awake however so I suppose they wanted us to keep moving. We'd been here for a month.

I didn't want to leave, however I knew that I had to obey Lupus. If not, then something bad would happen may it be death or punishment. I turned to them and they paid instant attention. "We're moving out today. We need to go farther than this. One day, we will find a home but the Ancestors have told me that we need to leave." I waited for them to be ready before moving them out, again. My paws were beginning to hurt.


	21. Off To Meet A Familiar Stranger

It was 2014. We had stopped being in wolf form and now instead we turned every full moon, except me. I have, however, learned how to turn myself into my wolf form so that I may join my pack. We were in Mississippi right now.

My new Beta was Norman Akatai, he was a young man of about 32 years old. Harold had died protecting this clan from an ambush by some other wolf pack. He'd survived until the age of 58. My old clan mates were dead, I had new ones. I had watched many of them die and many of them come. I now know what my father meant when he scolded me for reacting the way I did when Henry had died.

Norman was a distant relative of Sholack. My very first apprentice that I didn't even get to train. I've never had an apprentice yet. I was okay with it though. I had began to teach the clan as a whole, taking one out for training every once in a while.

I had made turning werewolf into a ritual by now, I had made two rings that were replicas of my and Esther's wedding ring or engagement ring. It was too long ago to remember what the ring was. It might have been as simple as an I love you ring. The werewolves who were about to turn were now 19. Like they were supposed to be, however they were wearing the rings around their necks as a necklace.

It was night time and everyone was sleeping but me. I still got visited by Lupus and Sirius. They'd become very interested in me about three or four years ago. They had led me to this place. I said we were in Mississippi. But we were near Pearl River. They'd told me to follow this river a while back, about five months ago. So I obeyed. I'd begun to rely on them to where I should go because if I did, good things happened to us.

However, last night they couldn't stop beaming at me. I didn't know what was going on but I had learned from the past not to push into their personal business. That had been my first mistake. Ishaan had scolded me so bad that my ears had hurt. That was practically my worst ever punishment. Being punished in my _dreams_.

"Tyler." I looked around to see Ishaan. I smiled at him and he smiled back. "Tyler you need to sleep. The Ancestors want to see you, they have important information for you. They want you to cross the river. You'll need energy for that. Everyone must cross." I nodded.

"Okay we'll cross first thing in the morning, that's when everyone has the most energy."

"Your long journey is about to come to an end. You are about to find a permanent home. Or as far into the future as we can see anyway. You'll be able to get your first real apprentice. Not that Sholack wasn't a real one but still."

"Wait, you mean if we go to Louisiana we'll find a home?"

"… Not necessarily. You still have to travel all the way down to New Orleans Bayou."

"What? Father, I don't understand."

"When you see who's waiting for you there, you will. He himself is coming over here now. There will be only a month before you can see him, know who he is."

"Who are you talking about? Is it another Alpha? A clan? A pack?"

"You could say he's an Alpha. He killed his pack." I stared at him, horrified.

"What?!" I whisper yelled, if only because he covered my mouth as to not wake everyone.

"You'll understand when you meet him. He's travelled down a very dark path, my son. You almost won't recognize him from his looks."

"So it's someone I've met before?" That sums it up to someone I might be able to remember. "May I have a name to help me remember?" He smiled that damned he-knew-but-he-refused-to-tell-me-what-he-knew smile.

"All I can say is he's someone you _used _to know. He's… changed. Not in the good way but in a bad way. He might as well have come from the Moondog Clan. He could be their Alpha. I tell you this because I don't want you to be upset when you see him and be disappointed in him." I groaned.

"I hate it when you speak in riddles. I can never tell what you're trying to say. Father, please." I begged. "Tell me who it is."

"He's a werewolf." He said as he disappeared into nothing. I growled, hitting the ground with my fist before falling over on my side. Who could he possibly be talking about? Obviously this was a bad man I was supposed to know. He could be the Moondog Alpha. An arrogant murderer? I'm supposed to know one of those?

I'd just have to find out next month, like he said. For now, I closed my eyes and went to sleep.

**The End?**


End file.
